Media testify on TV-ratings oversight A Senate panel is evaluating a bill. Nielsen group is the main target At stake are billions of ad dollars.

Powerful media forces and smaller, less influential groups have been forging surprising alliances around a proposal to subject the Nielsen ratings of TV audiences to mandatory oversight.

"We must have an honest report card," Pat Mullen, chief executive of Tribune Broadcasting and a bill supporter, told the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing yesterday on the Fairness and Accuracy in Ratings Act.

The committee is gathering testimony to evaluate Sen. Conrad Burns' (R., Mont.) ratings bill, introduced this month. It would require the Media Rating Council Inc., a consortium of broadcasters, cable operators, advertisers and others, to certify the accuracy of any television ratings service. Because of its dominance, Nielsen Media Research Inc. is by default the only target of the act.

Tribune Co., which owns 26 big-market broadcast stations nationwide, including Philadelphia's WB affiliate, WPHL, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire are among the bill's supporters.

"The secret to our success, our ratings, are held hostage by a monopoly," said Mullen, voicing long-simmering tension between the TV industry and Nielsen.

At stake are the billions in advertising dollars for which TV channels, cable operators such as Comcast Corp., and broadcast stations compete.

Some of the bill's backers also say that TV programming popular with minorities could be jeopardized by one Nielsen ratings technology - the People Meter.

Nielsen has been called "arrogant" for deploying its controversial ratings system in Philadelphia and Washington this spring, and other cities previously, despite apparent flaws.

The meters rely on viewers to press a personalized remote control button when they watch TV. But actual participation is much lower in black and Latino households and among young males, affecting the system's accuracy.

"Nielsen has rolled these markets out before audits" of their accuracy "have taken place. That is a problem," said George Ivie, chief executive of the rating council, at yesterday's hearing. But, he said, "we believe the voluntary code of conduct is the key solution to the issues we face," not legislation.

The rating council already evaluates Nielsen's ratings systems, but its recommendations aren't legally binding. In several markets, local People Meters have failed to get accreditation from the council.