According to the disclosure hereof, the functionality of a 
server can be extended to collect data on content streams that the 
server is delivering to clients, and to 
beacon certain data back an analytics 
system to facilitate monitoring of, reporting on, and analysis of the delivery of content streams. At various stages of the streaming process, a 
server can read and update state information (for example cookie data) on the requesting 
client reflecting, for example, status in playing a particular 
stream. Based on the 
client's requests and the state information at each stage, the server can 
beacon appropriate information about the 
stream and its playback status back to the analytics 
system. The teachings hereof are particularly useful, without limitation, in streaming media analytics and for segment-based streaming approaches, including over HTTP.