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 is a snapshot of Channelone.com’s banner ad this morning. Channel One is advertising a personal injury law firm!? That doesn’t seem to make sense, but it does once you understand the reality of Channel One’s desperate situation with advertisers. The Norris Injury Lawyers ad appears because Channel One News had...
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Tell Kmart: Stop stealing taxpayer-funded class time. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
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From Jim Metrock: Few teachers feel comfortable speaking out against Channel One. If the TV show is playing in a school, that means Channel One and its classroom movie commercials and other nonsense has the approval of the principal, superintendent, and school board. Who wants to stand in opposition to them? It usually takes...
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From: Jim Metrock Channel One News is now putting out want ads to find a new “reporter” for their show. With the departure of Steven Fabian they are down to three: Jessica Kumari, Shelby Holliday, and Justin Finch. At one time Channel One News was a stepping stone to employment with a legitimate news...
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“Metrock bashing” Report Uncovers Channel One’s Sleazy Tactics October 15, 2006 MINORITY STAFF REPORT INVESTIGATION OF JACK ABRAMOFF’S USE OF TAX-EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS PREPARED BY THE MINORITY STAFF OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE UNITED STATES SENATE CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Ranking Member OCTOBER 2006 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa, Chairman ORRIN...
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Channel One News is back to their “kiddie marketing” tricks. They have announced a new contest. The impression is they are giving away tons of stuff to get kids to enter. They don’t call it a “contest” but rather a “sweepstakes”! Wow. This “sweepstakes” is all about wringing personally identifiable information (PII) from young people....
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