Does your school still have Channel One News?
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Houghton Mifflin/Channel One News

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.

Channel One Web Advertiser Has Links to Pornography

June 10, 1998

A child needs merely to click on "The Mining Company" ad banner on Channel One’s site and he or she is in a site that has links to pornographic pictures. Children are given warnings about the sexual content they will see if they keep clicking, but this site should not be connected to a...
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Satellite Problem To Cost Channel One Up To $5 Million

May 28, 1998

Channel One’s parent company, PRIMEDIA, issued a press release on May 26 preparing investors for lower earnings in their second quarter. It could be up to a $5 million loss caused by the malfunction aboard the Galaxy IV satellite. This summer every dish on every school will have to be readjusted to a new...
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Channel One Goes Dark – Students Freed From Mandatory Broadcast

May 23, 1998

It’s been a fairly bad year for Channel One: growing condemnation of its brash, in-your-face style of marketing to children, a major study showing Channel One is a monumental financial rip-off, a U.S. Senator calling for hearings on Channel One’s waste of school time, and now a freak satellite problem pulls the plug on...
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Obligation Contributes Article to National School Boards Association’s “School Board News” Newspaper

May 12, 1998

The most controversial show on television is not “Jerry Springer”. It’s called Channel One and...
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Channel One Web Site for Kids Offers Quick Link To Adult XXX Videos

May 1, 1998

Channel One has made another mistake. Channel One’s in-school TV show for schoolchildren daily advertises their official web site (www.channelone.com). On this site, children are bombarded with even more advertisements. Commercial advertisements are not suppose to be on a children’s educational site, but Channel One’s site, like its TV show, is mainly an advertisement...
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U.S. Senator Richard Shelby Blasts Channel One and Calls for Senate Hearings On This Controversial TV Show

April 29, 1998

Richard Shelby (R-AL) sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to each U.S. senator asking for new hearings on Channel One and other commercial programs in public schools. "Parents entrust their children to the care and supervision of the local school system. Establishing this trust is not done blindly. While parents likely know and interact with...
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PRIMEDIA, the parent company of Channel One, announced record first quarter sales from continuing businesses of $328.5 million and record earnings of $63.1 (EBITDA)

April 23, 1998

“The Education segment’s record first quarter sales and EBITDA from continuing businesses largely reflect continued advertising strength at Channel One…,” said William Reilly, chairman and chief executive officer of PRIMEDIA. Channel One continues to convert taxpayer money to their private profit. Jim Metrock, Obligation president said, “Our students aren’t benefiting, our schools aren’t benefiting, and taxpayers aren’t benefiting, but Channel One is...
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School Systems Urged To Temporarily Halt Channel One Because of Child Predator Dangers – State Superintendent And Attorney General Help Sought

March 11, 1998

March 11, 1998 (Birmingham, AL) FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before a Senate hearing yesterday that child predators are a growing problem on children’s web sites and chat rooms. A local child advocacy group says that Alabama children are being needlessly exposed to Internet dangers by the controversial in-school TV show, Channel One. Obligation...
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Channel One’s Guide On How To Cheat On Book Reports

February 13, 1998

 We were tipped off to this by a teacher in Canada. (Our friends to the north are being plagued with a Channel One clone called YNN.) Channel One published this on their official web site. It attempts to be humorous and at the same time instructional. The problem: You have a book report due tomorrow and you haven’t read...
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Lawrence Central High School, Indianapolis, IN, Article On Channel One

February 10, 1998

(Article removed to protect privacy of students)
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