Monitor of subcsription usage and detection of abuse

A system comprising:

• communication management hardware operative to:
• receive multiple requests specifying video assets for retrieval, the multiple requests identified as being associated with a first subscriber account of multiple subscriber accounts;
• track attributes of processing the multiple requests to produce playback information supporting playback of the video assets;
• and
• derive a usage metric for the first subscriber account based on the tracked attributes of processing the multiple requests.

Computer-readable storage hardware having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by computer processor hardware, cause the computer processor hardware to:

• receive multiple requests specifying video assets for retrieval, the multiple requests identified as being associated with a first subscriber account of multiple subscriber accounts;
• track attributes of processing the multiple requests to produce playback information supporting playback of the video assets;
• and
• derive a usage metric for the first subscriber account based on the tracked attributes of processing the multiple requests.