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.
It is getting harder and harder to describe Channel One’s shrinking audience. Channel One has always said they had so many millions of students in their audience. When Obligation began reporting on Channel One in 1996, the company claimed to have 8.2 million students. That number steadily went down to "nearly 6 million"...
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Since 1997 Obligation has been posting articles about Channel One News on the Internet. We have temporarily suspended Channel One reporting while we do a survey this summer of Channel One’s presence and use in U.S. classrooms. We know that Channel One has lost millions of students. We are also aware that many schools...
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People tend to laugh as they read the list of things Channel One WILL NOT advertise. Above are the first six things on that list taken form their official Terms and Conditions. It is funny because Channel One has always referred to this list to show how much they care for young people. Oh,...
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Channel One News continues to promote sleazy movies to children just out of elementary school. The latest movie is Dance Flick rated PG13 for crude and sexual content throughout, and vulgar language. Channel One is also sponsoring a contest on their website to encourage kids to see this filthy movie. This movie is produced...
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Yesterday we wrote of Channel One’s promoting the offensive Quiz Rocket web site. Today – surprise – all reference to it and some other problem sites have been removed. Funny what sunshine does to these marketing roaches. They dump this trash on children until they get caught – typical Channel One News. ...
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Channel One thinks the site that offers quizzes like the above is "cool." Channel One News has brought new content to their web site. This new content is not going to be pleasing to parents. If you go to the bottom of the Channelone.com homepage, you’ll find this new section of links: Channel...
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From Jim Metrock: There is a rumor that NBC may be giving up on Channel One News. If it’s true NBC will be adding their name to a long list of schools and educators who have ended their relationship with the Channel One Network. NBC has been producing the Channel One News show since...
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From today’s Channelone.com homepage: Ads for two new movies get prime real estate for maximum attention. There is a banner ad for the PG13 17 Again. This movie has underage drinking content. There is also a large ad for the new Star Trek movie plus a deceptive ad made to look like a news...
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Sonya and David Channel One’s "Advisory Board" From Jim Metrock: This Advisory Board is a marketing gimmick to make Channel One look like it is relevant to educators. Channel One wants the public to think educators are daily guiding Channel One News in its decision making. Hogwash. This board is a joke and...
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Here’s a partial clue: They are the hard-working – or should that be "hardly working" – members of Channel One’s distinguished – or should that be "extinguished" – Advisory Board. Since 2006 these educators have allowed Channel One to use their faces, first names only please, and the name of their state no city...
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