Collection of detailed data on normative overall patterns of television viewer behavior has been an ongoing effort of the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) in the United Kingdom. While their measurement system--self-completion viewing diaries in conjunction with electronic meters recording television set use--may register that an audience is "viewing" a particular program, it does not consider the attentional factors that operate during television viewing, i.e., how behavior varies under different conditions of viewing and for different genre and production styles. The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has begun a program of research that is designed to chart the "natural history" of television use in the United Kingdom. The first stage resulted in the validation of BARB's techniques of data collection. A pilot study of television viewing in the second stage was then conducted using nine selected households. This stage of the study involved the installation of special video/recording equipment to record all activity during television viewing (Household Observation and Monitoring Equipment or HOME) in order to assess the new monitoring equipment and generate testable hypotheses about viewing behavior in realistic settings. A number of hypotheses were generated, and the researchers feel that the ability of this technique to show television as it is can have a formative effect on the thinking and designs of those researchers who sustain and use existing large scale assessment methods, since presence alone is not an adequate measure. (10 references) (CGD)