I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1760
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for the implementation
of systems for rating the specific content of specific television programs.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 3, 1997
Mr. BURTON of Indiana introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for
the implementation of systems for rating the specific
content of specific television programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family Television
Viewing Information and Empowerment Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF RATING SYSTEMS FOR TELE-
VISION PROGRAMMING.
Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘SEC. 337. RATING SYSTEMS FOR TELEVISION PROGRAM-
MING.
‘‘(a) SYSTEM REQUIRED FOR GRANT OR RENEWAL
OF BROADCAST TELEVISION LICENSE.—The Commission
shall not grant or renew a license for a broadcast television
station unless the person applying for the license submits
to the Commission with the application evidence of—
‘‘(1) in the case of an application for the grant
of a license, a plan for the implementation of a sys-
tem for rating the content of television programming
to be broadcast by the station under the license; or
‘‘(2) in the case of an application for the re-
newal of a license, evidence of the implementation as
of the date of the application of a system for rating
the content of television programming broadcast by
the station.
‘‘(b) SYSTEM REQUIRED FOR ASSIGNMENT OF TRAN-
SITIONAL
DIGITAL
TELEVISION
FREQUENCIES.—The
Commission shall not assign transitional digital television
frequencies to a broadcast television station unless the
person licensed to operate the station submits to the Com-
mission with the request for assignment evidence of the
implementation as of the date of the request of a system
for rating the content of television programming broadcast
by the station.
‘‘(c) RECOVERY OF CERTAIN TRANSITIONAL FRE-
QUENCIES.—The Commission shall require a person as-
signed transitional digital television frequencies before the
date of enactment of this section to surrender such fre-
quencies to the Commission if the person does not submit
to the Commission, before commencement of the use of
such frequencies, evidence of the implementation of a sys-
tem for rating the content of television programming to
be broadcast using such frequencies.
‘‘(d) SYSTEM ELEMENTS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each system for rating the
content of television programming under this section
shall provide a rating of the specific content of each
pre-recorded program broadcast by the television
station concerned.
‘‘(2) SPECIFIC ELEMENTS.—The rating of a tel-
evision program under such system shall—
‘‘(A) include information regarding lan-
guage content, sexual content, violent content,
and any other element that the person imple-
menting the system considers appropriate; and
‘‘(B) be broadcast so as—
‘‘(i) to appear in both visible and au-
dible form;
‘‘(ii) to appear at the beginning of the
program, and every 30 minutes thereafter
in the case of a program in excess of 30
minutes in length; and
‘‘(iii) to permit the automatic blocking
of display of the program using a feature
to block display of programs with a com-
mon rating required under section 303(x).
‘‘(e) REVIEW BY COMMISSION.—
‘‘(1) PURPOSE OF REVIEW.—The Commission
shall review each system for rating the content of
television programming submitted under this section
solely for the purpose of assuring that such system
meets the requirements of subsection (d).
‘‘(2) SCOPE OF AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this
section may be construed to authorize or require the
Commission to establish or require a specific system
for rating television programming.
‘‘(3) 
APPLICABILITY
OF
CONTENT-BASED
STANDARDS.—Nothing in this section may be con-
strued to limit the applicability to television pro-
grams covered by a system for rating television pro-
gramming under this section of any content-based
standards otherwise applicable to such programs
under any other provision of law.
‘‘(f) DEFINITION.—As used in this section:
‘‘(1) ADVANCED
TELEVISION
SERVICES.—The
term ‘advanced television services’ has the meaning
given such term in section 336(g)(1).
‘‘(2) TRANSITIONAL DIGITAL TELEVISION FRE-
QUENCIES.—The term ‘transitional digital television
frequencies’ means television frequencies allotted by
the Commission for use by broadcast television sta-
tions for the transition of such stations from the
broadcast of analog television services to the broad-
cast of advanced television services.’’.
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