Abstract: 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.