A Boston nonprofit is urging dozens of states to drop a 12-minute newscast popular in classrooms across the country, claiming the Channel One News broadcast is nothing more than a business ploy to subject children to commercials and other questionable content.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood last month wrote school superintendents in 42 states, calling on them to conduct a thorough review of Channel One programming, which is currently broadcast to about five million students across the country each day. The group believes school kids are being forced to watch too many commercials and they question the message in the ads, as well as Channel One's website, which they claim promotes highly sexualized content.

"One full day of instructional time is lost each year just to Channel One's commercials." the group said in its letter. "No other company generates revenue by compelling a captive audience of students to watch television commercials during taxpayer-funded class time."