Monitoring media playback

A media playback server for outputting media content over a network to a client device and monitoring playback of the media content, the server being arranged under the control of software to:

• output media content from the server over a network to a client device, receive from the client device, a plurality of beacon signals, each beacon signal comprising at least one pair of timing data items, a first data item in the pair representing a point in time in the media content and a second data item in the pair representing a time indicated by a real time clock of the client device at which time the part of media content corresponding to said point in time was being played by the client device, and
• at least one of process or store the beacon signals at the server so as to monitor the playback of the media content by the client device.

A method for monitoring media playback in a system where a client device is arranged under the control of software to receive media content over a network from a server, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving media content from a server over a network at a client device,
• playing back the media content to a user, and
• sending from the client device to the server, a plurality of beacon signals, each beacon signal comprising at least one pair of timing data items, a first data item in the pair representing a point in time in the media content and a second data item in the pair representing a time indicated by a real time clock of the client device at which time the part of media content corresponding to said point in time was being played by the client device, thus allowing monitoring by the server of playback of the media content at the client device.

A client device for use in monitored playback of media content, the client device being arranged under the control of software to:

• receive media content over a network from a server,
• playback the media content to a user, and
• send from the client device to the server, a plurality of beacon signals, each beacon signal comprising at least one pair of timing data items, a first data item in the pair representing a point in time in the media content and a second data item in the pair representing a time indicated by a real time clock of the client device at which time the part of media content corresponding to said point in time was being played by the client device, thus allowing monitoring by the server of playback of the media content at the client device.

25-26. (canceled)

A video playback system comprising a server connected to a client device over a network,

• the server being arranged under the control of software to output a video stream to the client device and monitor the playback of the video stream by the client device, wherein
• the client device comprises a real time clock and is arranged under the control of software to send to the server a plurality of beacon signals, each beacon signal comprising at least one pair of timing data items, a first data item in the pair representing a time code from the video stream and a second data item in the pair representing a time indicated by the client device real time clock at which the part of video stream corresponding to said time code was being played by the client device, and
• the server is arranged under the control of software to at least one of process and store the beacon signals so as to monitor the playback of the video content by the client device.

(canceled)