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. 
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 ‘‘Television Viewer Con-
sumer Protection Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds and declares the following: 
(1) Television ratings inform television opera-
tors and advertisers with respect to the size and de-
mographic makeup of audiences for television pro-
gramming. 
(2) Television operators rely upon these ratings 
to fulfill their obligation to serve the public interest. 
(3) Television viewers will receive the most rep-
resentative variety of television programs if tele-
vision ratings measurement services provide data 
that accurately reflects viewing by all demographic 
groups. 
(4) Inaccurate ratings systems that undercount 
minority, young, family, and rural television viewers 
will adversely affect these populations if television 
operators air fewer telecasts that are intended to 
serve such viewers as a result of such inaccurate rat-
ings. 
(5) The interests of viewers of television pro-
gramming will be best secured by an industry over-
sight system that guarantees accurate ratings of tel-
evision shows. 
(6) A body to ensure such oversight was estab-
lished at the behest of Congress in the 1960s to 
guarantee the accuracy of television ratings. 
(7) It is in the public interest to ensure that 
this body has the necessary authority to fulfill its 
critical role.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION. 
(a) ACCREDITATION REQUIRED.—No television rat-
ings service may sell, offer to sell, or otherwise provide, 
in or affecting interstate commerce, data from a television 
ratings measurement system that produces, or is designed 
to produce, television ratings data to be used commercially 
as currency ratings unless that system has been accredited 
by the Media Rating Council. 
(b) DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—Any dispute between a 
television ratings service and the Media Rating Council 
shall be resolved in accordance with the provisions of sec-
tion 4. 
SEC. 4. DISPUTE RESOLUTION. 
(a) RULES FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—Any dispute 
between a television ratings service and the Media Rating 
Council shall be resolved according to the commercial rules 
then in effect of the American Arbitration Association. 
(b) FORMATION OF ARBITRATION PANEL.—Upon a 
complaint by either a television ratings service or the 
Media Rating Council, an arbitration panel shall be ap-
pointed from a list of arbitrators submitted by the Amer-
ican Arbitration Association. 
(c) DECISIONS BINDING.—Any decision reached by 
the arbitration panel shall be binding upon the parties. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act:
(1) CURRENCY RATINGS.—The term ‘‘currency 
ratings’’ means data produced by television ratings 
measurement systems that are widely used by a sig-
nificant portion of television operators and adver-
tisers to determine the commercial value of adver-
tising on television. 
(2) 
MEDIA
RATING
COUNCIL.—The 
term 
‘‘Media Rating Council’’ means— 
(A) the organization formed by the tele-
vision industry in 1964 to represent the inter-
ests of advertisers and television operators in 
accurate ratings of television programming; or 
(B) any other entity formed for the pur-
pose of accrediting television ratings services 
pursuant to the provisions of section 3 and that 
has been approved for such purpose by the Fed-
eral Communications Commission. 
(3) TELEVISION RATINGS MEASUREMENT SYS-
TEM.—The term ‘‘television ratings measurement 
system’’ means any system designed to measure the 
viewing habits of television viewers and to produce 
commercially usable data based on such measure-
ments. 
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