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What is this all about?
Each of these frames are from the in-school TV show Channel One News. After the anchors signoff, the show continues with various graphics. Often the students see wording on the screen that reminds them to go to the Channel One web site when they get home. Often at the end of the show the official rules for a contest are scrolled at a speed that no child can read it. This fall Channel One is also flashing on the screen these graphics that contain the names of schools that have contracts with Channel One.
This is part of a program Channel One uses to help get students watching their show. Channel One is very concerned about their loss of viewers. Their advertisers need proof that students are watching.
Channel One is offering schools a chance to win $5,000 if they record the names of the schools mentioned at the end of each show. This information can then be given to advertisers to show that schools are indeed watching the show.
The plan is to get teachers who normally don’t watch Channel One in their classroom to get excited about the chance of winning some money for their school. (Channel One News has a history of failed attempts to get classroom teachers excited about their company. Remember the $500 bribe to teachers to sign up neighboring schools? That was a complete disaster resulting in a Wall Street Journal expose. Channel One also thought that teachers would flock to a teacher email program. Few if any teachers signed up and Channel One dropped the program.)
What Channel One is doing is asking teachers to help their company confirm their viewership so they can justify the cost of their ad time to national advertisers. Teachers are basically doing work for this New York company without pay. It is yet another way that Channel One wastes the time of teachers and robs taxpayers.
Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, “The schools listed on these ‘Big Shout Out’ clips have one thing in common for sure. They all are wasting tax money and student time with Channel One News. Maybe the citizens in each of these communities will give a ‘Big You’re-Wasting-Tax-Money Shout Out’ to their superintendents and school board.”
