DocumentationAnalyticsStreaming media services guide

XDM reporting schema

Last update: June 4, 2026

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When you send media tracking events using the Adobe Experience Platform Edge Network, the Media Analytics backend processes those events and writes computed Experience Events to Platform datasets. Understanding which events reach Platform, and what the backend computes for you, helps you validate your implementation and build accurate reports in Customer Journey Analytics or Adobe Analytics.

Two distinct XDM schemas are used in different parts of the collection and reporting pipeline:

Schema
Namespace
Direction
Purpose
Media Collection
xdm.mediaCollection
Client → Adobe
What your player sends for each tracking event. Used by variables.
Media Reporting
xdm.mediaReporting
Adobe → Platform
What the backend writes to datasets after processing. Used by dimensions and metrics.

Fields present in mediaReporting but absent from the mediaCollection payload are derived from the full sequence of events in a session. You never send these fields; Adobe generates them.

Events that write to Platform datasets

Of the 12 trackable event types, only five generate individual Experience Event writes to datasets:

Event type
Included in datasets
Notes
Session start
Yes
Written when the session is initialized
Ad start
Yes
Written when an individual ad begins
Ad complete
Yes
Written when an ad plays to completion
Chapter complete
Yes
Written when a chapter plays to completion
Session complete
Yes
Written when the session ends; richest computed field set
Play
No
Used to compute timePlayed
Pause start
No
Used to compute pauseCount and pauseTime
Ping
No
Heartbeat; used to detect session inactivity
Buffer start
No
Used to compute QoE buffer metrics
Bitrate change
No
Used to compute QoE bitrate metrics
State start
No
Used to compute player state metrics
Error
No
Used to compute errorCount in QoE

Backend-computed fields

The following fields appear in mediaReporting payloads but are never part of the collection payload. The backend derives them from the full event sequence.

Session-level (appear on sessionComplete):

Field
Description
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.timePlayed
Total seconds of main content played, excluding ads
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.totalTimePlayed
Total seconds elapsed, including ads
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.uniqueTimePlayed
Deduplicated seconds — intervals viewed more than once are counted only once
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.averageMinuteAudience
timePlayed divided by content length
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.estimatedStreams
Estimated concurrent streams
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.adCount
Number of ads that started
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.chapterCount
Number of chapters that started
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.pauseCount / xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.pauseTime
Pause frequency and total pause duration
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.hasProgress10 … xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.hasProgress95
Progress milestone flags (10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%)
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.hasSegmentView
Whether at least one frame of content was viewed
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.isCompleted / xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.isPlayed
Completion and start flags
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.secondsSinceLastCall
Time between last ping and session close
xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.segment
Content segment bracket (e.g., [0-1])

Ad-level (appear on adComplete):

Field
Description
xdm.mediaReporting.advertisingDetails.timePlayed
Seconds of ad content played
xdm.mediaReporting.advertisingDetails.isCompleted
Whether the ad played to completion

Chapter-level (appear on chapterComplete):

Field
Description
xdm.mediaReporting.chapterDetails.timePlayed
Seconds of chapter content played
xdm.mediaReporting.chapterDetails.isCompleted
Whether the chapter played to completion
xdm.mediaReporting.chapterDetails.isStarted
Whether the chapter started

QoE (aggregated on sessionComplete):

Field
Description
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.bitrateAverage
Average bitrate across the session
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.bitrateAverageBucket
Bucketed average bitrate range
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.bitrateChangeCount
Number of bitrate changes
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.errorCount
Number of errors
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.droppedFrames
Total dropped frames
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.playerSdkErrors
Array of player error codes
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.hasErrorImpactedStreams
Whether any error occurred
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.hasDroppedFrameImpactedStreams
Whether dropped frames occurred
xdm.mediaReporting.qoeDataDetails.hasBitrateChangeImpactedStreams
Whether bitrate changes occurred

Downloaded content

For sessions tracked using the downloaded endpoint, the backend automatically sets xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.isDownloaded to true on the sessionStart reporting event. All other reporting events for downloaded sessions follow the same schema as live sessions. Use this field in CJA or Adobe Analytics to filter or segment downloaded playback.

See Downloaded endpoint in the Media Edge API reference for collection implementation details.

Validate your implementation

After sending events through the Media Edge API, verify your data landed correctly using one of the following methods:

Adobe Experience Platform dataset preview

  1. In CX Enterprise, navigate to Datasets and select your streaming media dataset.
  2. Select Preview dataset to see the most recently ingested Experience Events.
  3. Confirm that eventType values such as media.sessionStart and media.sessionComplete appear with populated mediaReporting fields.

Customer Journey Analytics dataset inspection

  1. In CJA, open the connection associated with your streaming media dataset.
  2. Select Add datasets and inspect the schema to confirm the mediaReporting fields are mapped to the expected dimensions and metrics.

Adobe Analytics processing rules (if using Analytics destination)

For Adobe Analytics report suites receiving data via the Analytics source connector, you can use Processing Rules to map mediaReporting context data variables to custom props or eVars. The isDownloaded flag is available as a.media.downloaded.

XDM payload examples

The following examples show the complete mediaReporting XDM structure for each reporting event as written to Platform datasets. The _{tenantName} property represents your organization’s tenant namespace for any custom fields.

media.sessionStart
code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "_{tenantName}": {
      "customField1": "c1",
      "customField2": "c2"
    },
    "mediaReporting": {
      "sessionDetails": {
        "adLoad": "adLoadType",
        "appVersion": "sdk-1.0",
        "artist": "test-artist",
        "channel": "broadcastChannel",
        "rating": "4.8/5",
        "show": "test-name Series",
        "genreList": ["Comedy"],
        "episode": "4933",
        "originator": "Tokala Clementine",
        "isViewed": true,
        "network": "test-network",
        "firstAirDate": "firstAirDate",
        "streamType": "video",
        "authorized": "true",
        "streamFormat": "streamFormat",
        "genre": "Comedy",
        "station": "test-station",
        "hasResume": false,
        "season": "1521",
        "showType": "sitcom",
        "ID": "cd7b[...]6f",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "friendlyName": "test-friendly-name",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "album": "test-album",
        "author": "test-author",
        "length": 100,
        "dayPart": "dayPart",
        "label": "test-label",
        "mvpd": "test-mvpd",
        "feed": "sourceFeed",
        "assetID": "/uri-reference",
        "name": "test-name",
        "publisher": "test-media-publisher",
        "firstDigitalDate": "releaseDate"
      }
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "environment": "server",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge",
      "version": "0.0.0"
    },
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "5191[...]21",
          "authenticatedState": "ambiguous",
          "primary": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "eventType": "media.sessionStart",
    "_id": "0[...]0",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-11-20T12:43:35Z"
  }
}
media.adStart
code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "_{tenantName}": {
      "customField1": "c1",
      "customField2": "c2"
    },
    "environment": {
      "browserDetails": {},
      "ipV4": "130.248.81.10"
    },
    "mediaReporting": {
      "advertisingDetails": {
        "advertiser": "Adobe Marketing",
        "podPosition": 1,
        "placementID": "placementID",
        "example": "https://example.com",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "campaignID": "Adobe Analytics",
        "name": "/uri-reference/001",
        "length": 10,
        "siteID": "siteID",
        "isStarted": true,
        "creativeID": "creativeID",
        "friendlyName": "Ad 1"
      },
      "sessionDetails": {
        "adLoad": "adLoadType",
        "appVersion": "sdk-1.0",
        "artist": "test-artist",
        "pev3": "videoAd",
        "channel": "broadcastChannel",
        "rating": "4.8/5",
        "show": "test-name Series",
        "genreList": ["Comedy"],
        "episode": "4933",
        "originator": "Tokala Clementine",
        "network": "test-network",
        "firstAirDate": "firstAirDate",
        "streamType": "video",
        "pccr": true,
        "authorized": "true",
        "streamFormat": "streamFormat",
        "genre": "Comedy",
        "station": "test-station",
        "season": "1521",
        "showType": "sitcom",
        "ID": "cd7b[...]6f",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "friendlyName": "test-friendly-name",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "album": "test-album",
        "author": "test-author",
        "length": 100,
        "dayPart": "dayPart",
        "label": "test-label",
        "mvpd": "test-mvpd",
        "feed": "sourceFeed",
        "assetID": "/uri-reference",
        "name": "test-name",
        "publisher": "test-media-publisher",
        "firstDigitalDate": "releaseDate"
      },
      "advertisingPodDetails": {
        "offset": 0,
        "ID": "3d594614f445f6b00014e9b77730b833_1",
        "friendlyName": "Mid-ad"
      }
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "environment": "server",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge",
      "version": "0.0.0"
    },
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "5191[...]21",
          "authenticatedState": "ambiguous",
          "primary": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "eventType": "media.adStart",
    "_id": "d[...]0",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-11-20T12:43:56Z"
  }
}
media.adComplete
code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "_{tenantName}": {
      "customField1": "c1",
      "customField2": "c2"
    },
    "mediaReporting": {
      "advertisingDetails": {
        "advertiser": "Adobe Marketing",
        "podPosition": 1,
        "placementID": "placementID",
        "example": "https://example.com",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "campaignID": "Adobe Analytics",
        "length": 10,
        "creativeID": "creativeID",
        "timePlayed": 7,
        "name": "/uri-reference/001",
        "siteID": "siteID",
        "friendlyName": "Ad 1",
        "isCompleted": true
      },
      "sessionDetails": {
        "adLoad": "adLoadType",
        "appVersion": "sdk-1.0",
        "artist": "test-artist",
        "pev3": "videoAd",
        "channel": "broadcastChannel",
        "rating": "4.8/5",
        "show": "test-name Series",
        "genreList": ["Comedy"],
        "episode": "4933",
        "originator": "Tokala Clementine",
        "network": "test-network",
        "firstAirDate": "firstAirDate",
        "streamType": "video",
        "pccr": true,
        "authorized": "true",
        "streamFormat": "streamFormat",
        "genre": "Comedy",
        "station": "test-station",
        "season": "1521",
        "showType": "sitcom",
        "ID": "cd7b[...]6f",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "friendlyName": "test-friendly-name",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "album": "test-album",
        "author": "test-author",
        "length": 100,
        "dayPart": "dayPart",
        "label": "test-label",
        "mvpd": "test-mvpd",
        "feed": "sourceFeed",
        "assetID": "/uri-reference",
        "name": "test-name",
        "publisher": "test-media-publisher",
        "firstDigitalDate": "releaseDate"
      },
      "advertisingPodDetails": {
        "offset": 0,
        "ID": "3d594614f445f6b00014e9b77730b833_1",
        "friendlyName": "Mid-ad"
      }
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "environment": "server",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge",
      "version": "0.0.0"
    },
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "5191[...]21",
          "authenticatedState": "ambiguous",
          "primary": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "eventType": "media.adComplete",
    "_id": "f[...]0",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-11-20T12:44:03Z"
  }
}
media.chapterComplete
code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "_{tenantName}": {
      "customField1": "c1",
      "customField2": "c2",
      "customTest": "myCustomValue1"
    },
    "environment": {
      "browserDetails": {},
      "ipV4": "130.248.81.10"
    },
    "mediaReporting": {
      "sessionDetails": {
        "adLoad": "adLoadType",
        "appVersion": "sdk-1.0",
        "artist": "test-artist",
        "pev3": "video",
        "channel": "broadcastChannel",
        "rating": "4.8/5",
        "show": "test-name Series",
        "genreList": ["Comedy"],
        "episode": "4933",
        "originator": "Tokala Clementine",
        "network": "test-network",
        "firstAirDate": "firstAirDate",
        "streamType": "video",
        "pccr": true,
        "authorized": "true",
        "streamFormat": "streamFormat",
        "genre": "Comedy",
        "station": "test-station",
        "season": "1521",
        "showType": "sitcom",
        "ID": "cd7b[...]6f",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "friendlyName": "test-friendly-name",
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "album": "test-album",
        "author": "test-author",
        "length": 100,
        "dayPart": "dayPart",
        "label": "test-label",
        "mvpd": "test-mvpd",
        "feed": "sourceFeed",
        "assetID": "/uri-reference",
        "name": "test-name",
        "publisher": "test-media-publisher",
        "firstDigitalDate": "releaseDate"
      },
      "chapterDetails": {
        "timePlayed": 10,
        "offset": 0,
        "length": 10,
        "index": 1,
        "ID": "3d594614f445f6b00014e9b77730b833_1",
        "isStarted": true,
        "friendlyName": "Chapter 1",
        "isCompleted": true
      }
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "environment": "server",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge",
      "version": "0.0.0"
    },
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "5191[...]21",
          "authenticatedState": "ambiguous",
          "primary": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "eventType": "media.chapterComplete",
    "_id": "a[...]0",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-11-20T12:44:24Z"
  }
}
media.sessionComplete
code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "_{tenantName}": {
      "customField1": "c1",
      "customField2": "c2"
    },
    "environment": {
      "browserDetails": {},
      "ipV4": "130.248.81.10"
    },
    "mediaReporting": {
      "qoeDataDetails": {
        "playerSdkErrors": ["test-buffer-start"],
        "bitrateAverageBucket": "0-99",
        "bitrateChangeCount": 1,
        "droppedFrames": 30,
        "hasErrorImpactedStreams": true,
        "hasBitrateChangeImpactedStreams": true,
        "hasDroppedFrameImpactedStreams": true,
        "bitrateAverage": 35,
        "timeToStart": 1,
        "errorCount": 1
      },
      "sessionDetails": {
        "adLoad": "adLoadType",
        "appVersion": "sdk-1.0",
        "hasProgress10": true,
        "pev3": "video",
        "channel": "broadcastChannel",
        "rating": "4.8/5",
        "episode": "4933",
        "pauseTime": 3,
        "streamType": "video",
        "pccr": true,
        "authorized": "true",
        "segment": "[0-1]",
        "season": "1521",
        "showType": "sitcom",
        "pauseCount": 1,
        "ID": "cd7b[...]6f",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "uniqueTimePlayed": 47,
        "totalTimePlayed": 55,
        "author": "test-author",
        "hasProgress25": true,
        "feed": "sourceFeed",
        "timePlayed": 48,
        "name": "test-name",
        "publisher": "test-media-publisher",
        "hasPauseImpactedStreams": true,
        "averageMinuteAudience": 0.48,
        "artist": "test-artist",
        "show": "test-name Series",
        "genreList": ["Comedy"],
        "originator": "Tokala Clementine",
        "network": "test-network",
        "firstAirDate": "firstAirDate",
        "hasSegmentView": true,
        "streamFormat": "streamFormat",
        "genre": "Comedy",
        "station": "test-station",
        "friendlyName": "test-friendly-name",
        "isCompleted": true,
        "playerName": "HTML5 player",
        "album": "test-album",
        "chapterCount": 1,
        "length": 100,
        "adCount": 1,
        "dayPart": "dayPart",
        "label": "test-label",
        "mvpd": "test-mvpd",
        "secondsSinceLastCall": 51,
        "assetID": "/uri-reference",
        "isPlayed": true,
        "estimatedStreams": 1,
        "firstDigitalDate": "releaseDate"
      },
      "states": [
        {
          "isSet": true,
          "name": "mute",
          "count": 1,
          "time": 3
        },
        {
          "isSet": true,
          "name": "pictureInPicture",
          "count": 1,
          "time": 3
        }
      ]
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "environment": "server",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge",
      "version": "0.0.0"
    },
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "5191[...]21",
          "authenticatedState": "ambiguous",
          "primary": true
        }
      ]
    },
    "eventType": "media.sessionComplete",
    "_id": "a[...]0",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-11-20T12:44:40Z"
  }
}
media.sessionStart (downloaded content)

Sessions tracked using the downloaded endpoint follow the same reporting schema with one key difference: xdm.mediaReporting.sessionDetails.isDownloaded is set to true on the sessionStart reporting event. All other event types are identical to the live content examples above.

code language-json 
{
  "xdm": {
    "mediaReporting": {
      "customMetadata": [
        {
          "name": "customData",
          "value": "example"
        }
      ],
      "playhead": 0,
      "sessionDetails": {
        "ID": "d8a25708a6b0be83975e32e2f422105ed62f51ff67e6d82d898657534ab9244f",
        "channel": "channel",
        "contentType": "VOD",
        "length": 100,
        "name": "123456789",
        "playerName": "playerName",
        "isDownloaded": true
      }
    },
    "eventType": "media.sessionStart",
    "timestamp": "YYYY-09-26T15:52:24Z",
    "identityMap": {
      "ECID": [
        {
          "id": "51910389753901685456014889838591030721"
        }
      ]
    },
    "implementationDetails": {
      "version": "0.0.1",
      "environment": "browser",
      "name": "https://ns.adobe.com/experience/edge"
    }
  }
}
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