Channel One News is a youth marketing company whose main purpose is to get advertising to a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren. The company loans a school TV equipment in exchange for the school’s contractual pledge to show students a daily, 12-minute, hyper-commercial, TV program called Channel One News. Students lose one hour a week of schools time, which equates to one lost week of instructional time (32 hours) per year. No educational organization endorses the use of Channel One News.
Channel One has fallen on very hard times. Once they claimed over 8 million students were under contract. Since 1997 they have continued to lose schools and now they claim “nearly five million” students and the true figure is probably lower.
In May 2014, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired Channel One from ZelnickMedia the makers of the ultra-violent Grand Thief Auto video game series. Houghton Mifflin did not disclose the purchase price.
At the end of 2014 most of Channel One’s full-paying advertisers have abandoned the program.
Originally published March 17, 2005. Kids don’t mess with Channel One’s attorneys. In 2012, the practice of using small print and large amounts of legal mumbo jumbo to confuse young people continues at Channel One News. Before we explain the strange language above, how about a little quiz? Watch this video clip from the end...
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Channel One News: Eating candy is fun! Popular, active young people like to eat candy, especially Jolly Rancher candy.
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Channel One News is a youth marketing company. The company exists for one main purpose: to bring commercial messages to hard to reach teen and preteen students. “Lightest viewers” means students who don’t watch much TV at home. “Lightest viewers” usually means good students with their priorities in the right place. “Lightest...
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From Jim Metrock: Channel One News tells kids they are ugly if they wear glasses. The only ugly people are the thuggish Channel One kiddie marketers who approve tough ads like this in middle and high schools.
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From Jim Metrock: This creepy banner ad appeared this week on Channelone.com. Clicking on the ad sends kids straight to the page below. This is the controversial Spokeo.com site. http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-spokeo-website-privacy-concerns-033110,0,2433092.story http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010/04/07/spokeo-com-scam.htm I typed in Paul Folkemer’s email address to see what would happen. Folkemer is a top executive for Channel One. He doesn’t appear...
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From Jim Metrock: I always found this “Sense of the Board Statement” on Channel One to be bizarre. This is from the 2000 Iowa City Community School District school board. This board has the right idea and gathered the pros and cons about Channel One twelve years ago but they refused to do...
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Channel One News removes the commercials before streaming them for parents at channelone.com. This program has the ads in them. Parents have a right to see what their child sees.
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From Jim Metrock: The woman in the video is Pat Ellis of Jasper, AL. She first brought Channel One to my attention in 1996. Together we helped nationally derail Channel One News. When they write the book about the rise and fall of Channel One News they will have to credit much of the...
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Channel One News has pitched a wide variety of wireless and cell phone ads to its captive audience.
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