I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3298 

To provide for the efficacy of television ratings services, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 14, 2005 

Mr. FOSSELLA (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. 

CONAWAY, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. JENKINS, Mr. STEARNS, Mr. SIMPSON, 

Mr. TERRY, Mr. PICKERING, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. WALDEN

of Oregon, Mr. GIBBONS, and Mr. CANNON) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To provide for the efficacy of television ratings services, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Television Viewer Con5 sumer Protection Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds and declares the following: 

8 (1) Television ratings inform television opera9 tors and advertisers with respect to the size and de-
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1 mographic makeup of audiences for television pro2 gramming. 

3 (2) Television operators rely upon these ratings 

4 to fulfill their obligation to serve the public interest. 

5 (3) Television viewers will receive the most rep6 resentative variety of television programs if tele7 vision ratings measurement services provide data 

8 that accurately reflects viewing by all demographic 

9 groups. 

10 (4) Inaccurate ratings systems that undercount 

11 minority, young, family, and rural television viewers 

12 will adversely affect these populations if television 

13 operators air fewer telecasts that are intended to 

14 serve such viewers as a result of such inaccurate rat15 ings. 

16 (5) The interests of viewers of television pro17 gramming will be best secured by an industry over18 sight system that guarantees accurate ratings of tel19 evision shows. 

20 (6) A body to ensure such oversight was estab21 lished at the behest of Congress in the 1960s to 

22 guarantee the accuracy of television ratings. 

23 (7) It is in the public interest to ensure that 

24 this body has the necessary authority to fulfill its 

25 critical role. 
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1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION. 

2 (a) ACCREDITATION REQUIRED.—No television rat3 ings service may sell, offer to sell, or otherwise provide, 

4 in or affecting interstate commerce, data from a television 

5 ratings measurement system that produces, or is designed 

6 to produce, television ratings data to be used commercially 

7 as currency ratings unless that system has been accredited 

8 by the Media Rating Council. 

9 (b) DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—Any dispute between a 

10 television ratings service and the Media Rating Council 

11 shall be resolved in accordance with the provisions of sec12 tion 4. 

13 SEC. 4. DISPUTE RESOLUTION. 

14 (a) RULES FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—Any dispute 

15 between a television ratings service and the Media Rating 

16 Council shall be resolved according to the commercial rules 

17 then in effect of the American Arbitration Association. 

18 (b) FORMATION OF ARBITRATION PANEL.—Upon a 

19 complaint by either a television ratings service or the 

20 Media Rating Council, an arbitration panel shall be ap21 pointed from a list of arbitrators submitted by the Amer22 ican Arbitration Association. 

23 (c) DECISIONS BINDING.—Any decision reached by 

24 the arbitration panel shall be binding upon the parties. 

25 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

26 For purposes of this Act: 
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1 (1) CURRENCY RATINGS.—The term ‘‘currency 

2 ratings’’ means data produced by television ratings 

3 measurement systems that are widely used by a sig4 nificant portion of television operators and adver5 tisers to determine the commercial value of adver6 tising on television. 

7 (2) MEDIA RATING COUNCIL.—The term 

8 ‘‘Media Rating Council’’ means— 

9 (A) the organization formed by the tele10 vision industry in 1964 to represent the inter11 ests of advertisers and television operators in 

12 accurate ratings of television programming; or 

13 (B) any other entity formed for the pur14 pose of accrediting television ratings services 

15 pursuant to the provisions of section 3 and that 

16 has been approved for such purpose by the Fed17 eral Communications Commission. 

18 (3) TELEVISION RATINGS MEASUREMENT SYS19 TEM.—The term ‘‘television ratings measurement 

20 system’’ means any system designed to measure the 

21 viewing habits of television viewers and to produce 

22 commercially usable data based on such measure23 ments. 

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