Television Viewer Consumer Protection Act of 2005

Television Viewer Consumer Protection Act of 2005 - Prohibits a television ratings service from selling or otherwise providing data from a television ratings measurement system that produces television ratings data to be used commercially as currency ratings unless that system has been accredited by the Media Ratings Council.

Requires any dispute between a ratings service and the Council to be resolved according to the commercial rules of the American Arbitration Association.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3298 Introduced in House (IH)]






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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Television Viewer Consumer 
Protection Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds and declares the following:
            (1) Television ratings inform television operators and 
        advertisers with respect to the size and demographic makeup of 
        audiences for television programming.
            (2) Television operators rely upon these ratings to fulfill 
        their obligation to serve the public interest.
            (3) Television viewers will receive the most representative 
        variety of television programs if television 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 ratings.
            (5) The interests of viewers of television programming will 
        be best secured by an industry oversight system that guarantees 
        accurate ratings of television shows.
            (6) A body to ensure such oversight was established 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 ratings 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 section 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 appointed from a list of arbitrators submitted by the 
American 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 significant portion of television 
        operators and advertisers to determine the commercial value of 
        advertising on television.
            (2) Media rating council.--The term ``Media Rating 
        Council'' means--
                    (A) the organization formed by the television 
                industry in 1964 to represent the interests of 
                advertisers and television operators in accurate 
                ratings of television programming; or
                    (B) any other entity formed for the purpose of 
                accrediting television ratings services pursuant to the 
                provisions of section 3 and that has been approved for 
                such purpose by the Federal Communications Commission.
            (3) Television ratings measurement system.--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 
        measurements.
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