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.
From Jim Metrock: This video from Channel One’s web site is fascinating. I learned much about William Shakespeare. Last year I read Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as Stage and loved it as I do all Bryson’s books, but I am surprised that many of the facts in this video were left out of...
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DreamWorks Studios promotes their new movie Puss in Boots during the first ten seconds of the October 27th Channel One News show.
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Channel One News and Your Schools October 11, 2011 – Channel One News is a ‘school-safe’ news channel which informs teens on current world events and pop culture. It’s free to schools, which means it’s funded by a lot (LOT) of advertising. Earlier today I posed as an interested parent wanting to get Channel...
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From Jim Metrock: An email similar to this one has gone out to dozens of public schools across the country since mid-August. Obligation is continuing to raise awareness of Channel One by concentrating on schools in eight states: Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia. This particular email was sent...
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Note: March 5, 2013 – Several months ago Jean-Yves Charlier lost his position at Promethean World. His idiotic decision to partner with Channel One certainly did not help his relations with the board of directors. From Jim Metrock: Big, important people in Big Business make mistakes all the time. Sometimes they make Big...
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A school that shows Channel One News wastes school time. The principal, superintendent, and school board members are all responsible for this waste of educational time and tax money. The Wastin’ Time and Tax Dollars Award is Obligation’s opportunity to “honor” the schools and their district that care so little about maximizing school...
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Taxpayer-funded school time is used to promote DreamWorks new movie Puss in Boots. Actress Salma Hayek talks directly to Channel One’s captive audience of students plugging the movie. Of course, Channel One uses a Pop Quiz as a long-form commercial for the film. Notice the ad for the drug and alcohol soaked Footloose movie...
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From Jim Metrock: Now we know who in the world would answer Channel One’s want ad below. This ad was published in late August so Channel One was desperate to replace somebody as the broadcast year had already begun. Turns out two on-air personalities were leaving: Steven Fabian and Justin Finch. I don’t...
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