II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1372

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

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 1, 2005

Mr. BURNS (for himself, Ms. SNOWE, Mr. MARTINEZ, and Mr. ALLEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL

To provide for the accuracy 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 ‘‘Fairness, Accuracy, 

5 Inclusivity, and Responsiveness in Ratings Act of 2005’’ 

6 or the ‘‘FAIR Ratings Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

8 The Congress finds the following: 

9 (1) Communications via the medium of broad10 cast television, including the transmission or car-
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1 riage of those signals by multichannel video pro2 gramming distributors (as defined in section 

3 602(13) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

4 U.S.C. 522(13)), play a critical role in and affecting 

5 interstate commerce. 

6 (2) Television ratings inform television opera7 tors and advertisers with respect to the size and de8 mographic makeup of audiences for television pro9 gramming. 

10 (3) Television operators rely upon these ratings 

11 to fulfill their obligation to serve the public interest. 

12 (4) Television viewers will receive the most rep13 resentative variety of television programs if tele14 vision ratings measurement services provide data 

15 that accurately reflects viewing by all demographic 

16 groups. 

17 (5) Inaccurate ratings systems that undercount 

18 minority, young, family, and rural television popu19 lations will adversely affect these populations if tele20 vision operators broadcast fewer programs that are 

21 intended to serve them as a result of inaccurate rat22 ings. 

23 (6) The interests of the television-viewing public 

24 will be best served by an industry oversight system 

25 that guarantees accurate ratings of television shows. 
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1 (7) The Media Ratings Council was established 

2 at the behest of Congress in the 1960s to guarantee 

3 the accuracy of television ratings and to ensure such 

4 oversight. 

5 (8) It is in the public interest to ensure that the 

6 Council have the necessary authority to fulfill its 

7 critical role. 

8 SEC. 3. ACCREDITATION OF RATINGS. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—

10 (1) ACCREDITATION REQUIRED.—No person 

11 may sell, offer to sell, or otherwise provide, in or af12 fecting interstate commerce, data from a television 

13 ratings measurement system that produces, or is de14 signed to produce, television ratings data to be used 

15 commercially as currency ratings unless that system 

16 is accredited by the Media Ratings Council. 

17 (2) TRIAL PERIOD FOR NEW MEASUREMENT

18 SYSTEMS.—The Council shall accredit any television 

19 ratings measurement system not in existence on the 

20 date of enactment of this Act that produces, or is 

21 designed to produce, data to be used commercially 

22 as currency ratings for an initial trial period on the 

23 basis of audits of the ratings system to be utilized. 

24 The Council shall establish a limited, reasonable, 

25 and uniform period of time for such trial periods. 
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1 (3) CHANGE IN METHODOLOGY.—If the oper2 ator of a television ratings measurement system that 

3 is in existence on the date of enactment of this Act 

4 makes a change in that system that has not been 

5 approved for accreditation purposes by the Council, 

6 the operator may not offer data from the changed 

7 system as currency ratings until the Council has ac8 credited the changed system utilizing any process of 

9 review it deems appropriate for evaluating such a 

10 change. 

11 (b) STANDARDS FOR ACCREDITATION.— 

12 (1) BASIC PRINCIPLES.—The Council shall base 

13 its standards of accreditation on the following basic 

14 principles: 

15 (A) ACCURACY.—Any accredited television 

16 ratings measurement system shall accurately 

17 convey all the aspects of audience viewing be18 havior that it is intended, or is represented, to 

19 convey, using accurate statistical methods and 

20 social sciences data, including disclosure of all 

21 limitations or possible sources of error. 

22 (B) EQUAL REPRESENTATION.—The sta23 tistical processes used to determine ratings data 

24 in an accredited television ratings measurement 

25 system shall include all age groups, demo-
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1 graphic and sub-demographic groups, geo2 graphic locations, and other indicators of the 

3 population of the United States as may be rel4 evant, in as accurate, proportionate, and fully 

5 representative a manner as possible, based on 

6 the requirements of the intended scope of each 

7 television ratings measurement system. 

8 (C) DISCLOSURE OF METHODOLOGY.—Any 

9 operator of a television ratings measurement 

10 system shall disclose to the Council the details 

11 of—

12 (i) how the system conducts its meas13 urement of data; and 

14 (ii) how the system interprets the 

15 data. 

16 (2) STANDARDS.—The Council shall establish 

17 specific and detailed standards for accreditation 

18 based on these principles, and make them publicly 

19 available at all times. 

20 (3) PERIODIC REVIEW.—The Council shall peri21 odically conduct a review of the standards based on 

22 changing circumstances, technologies, methods, or 

23 market conditions, and update the standards as nec24 essary. 
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1 SEC. 4. DISPUTE RESOLUTION. 

2 (a) PROCEDURES FOR ACCREDITATION.— Any dis3 pute between an operator of a television ratings measure4 ment system and the Council shall be resolved according 

5 to the dispute resolution procedures of the Council, based 

6 upon the rules and procedures specified in the bylaws of 

7 the Council in force at the time of the dispute. 

8 (b) MANDATORY PARTICIPATION.—An operator of a 

9 television ratings measurement service that—

10 (1) fails to receive accreditation from the Coun11 cil, and 

12 (2) offers or uses, or intends to offer or use, the 

13 data produced by that system commercially as cur14 rency ratings, 

15 shall participate in a dispute resolution procedure main16 tained by the Council. 

17 (c) DISCLOSURE OF AUDIT DATA.—If there is a dis18 pute between the operator of a television ratings measure19 ment system and the Council within its dispute resolution 

20 procedures, the Council may disclose audit and related 

21 data about the aspects of the system under dispute during 

22 the accreditation process to its members, other interested 

23 parties, or to the public. 

24 (d) BINDING DECISION.—If the Council determines 

25 in a dispute resolution process that changes in a television 

26 ratings measurement system are necessary for that system 
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1 to be accredited by the Council, and if the operator offers 

2 or intends to offer data from that system commercially 

3 as currency ratings, then the operator of the system shall 

4 make the changes specified by the Council. 

5 (e) DISCRETION OVER PROCESS.—The Council shall 

6 have sole discretion over the length, scope, timing, and 

7 process of resolving disputes concerning accreditation of 

8 television measurement ratings systems. 

9 (f) ENFORCEMENT ACTION.—The Council, or any of 

10 its members, may seek judicial enforcement of this Act, 

11 or of any final accreditation determination of the Council, 

12 in any court of competent jurisdiction. 

13 SEC. 5. MEDIA RATINGS COUNCIL DECISIONS. 

14 For the purposes of this Act, no action taken or deci15 sion made by the Council shall be taken into account un16 less it was fully reviewed and agreed to by the Board of 

17 the Council following deliberation, voting, and rec18 ommendations according to the rules and procedures of 

19 the Council. 

20 SEC. 6. ANNUAL REPORT. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Council shall transmit an an22 nual report on its activities no later than March 1 of each 

23 year to the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Com24 munications Commission, the Committee on Energy and 

25 Commerce of the House of Representatives, and the Com-
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1 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

2 United States Senate. 

3 (b) REQUIRED CONTENT.—The report shall con4 tain—

5 (1) a summary of disputes about the accuracy 

6 of television ratings measurement systems that took 

7 place over the previous 12 months; 

8 (2) a summary of issues driving change in the 

9 market for data provided by television ratings meas10 urement systems, including technology, market 

11 forces, and customer demand; and 

12 (3) any other relevant information. 

13 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

14 In this Act: 

15 (1) ACCREDITATION.—The term ‘‘accredita16 tion’’ means determination that a television ratings 

17 measurement system meets the Minimum Standards 

18 for Media Rating Research as set forth by the Coun19 cil, based on a rigorous and transparent audit and 

20 consultation process with the operator of the tele21 vision ratings measurement system. 

22 (2) MEDIA RATING COUNCIL; COUNCIL.—The 

23 terms ‘‘Media Rating Council’’ and ‘‘Council’’ mean 

24 the organization formed by the television industry in 

25 1964 to represent the interests of advertisers and 
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1 television operators in accurate ratings of television 

2 programming, or any other ratings accreditation 

3 agency that may be established in the future by a 

4 significant majority of television operators, television 

5 programmers and advertising agencies, exclusive of 

6 operators of television ratings measurement systems, 

7 to perform a comparable set of functions at a com8 parable level of quality. 

9 (3) TELEVISION RATINGS MEASUREMENT SYS10 TEM.— The term ‘‘television ratings measurement 

11 system’’ means any system designed to measure the 

12 viewing habits of television viewers and to produce 

13 commercially usable data based on such measure14 ments. 

15 (4) CURRENCY RATINGS.—The term ‘‘currency 

16 ratings’’ means data produced by television ratings 

17 measurement systems that are widely used by a sig18 nificant portion (as determined by the Council) of 

19 television operators and advertisers to determine the 

20 commercial value of advertising on television.

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