A sponsor who paid for a season of spots on your stream has no way of knowing whether those spots ran unless you tell them. Most local businesses never get that kind of report from a fence sign or a program ad, so a short, regular one sets your stream apart. This guide covers what to log, how to turn break logs into a report a business owner can read in a minute, and a monthly email template you can copy.
What sponsors want to know
Keep it simple. A business owner wants answers to four questions:
- Did my spot run? Which games, and how many times.
- Did anyone see it? Viewers or views for those games, from your streaming platform.
- Can I see it? A replay link with a timestamp, or a screenshot.
- What's next? The upcoming games their package covers.
That's the whole report. Resist the urge to send a spreadsheet with 40 columns. Keep the detail on file in case they ask.
What CommercialCue logs
If you play your spots with CommercialCue, the logging happens automatically. Every break records:
| Logged | Why it matters for a sponsor |
|---|---|
| Start and end time | Ties the break to a specific game and moment, so you can find it in the replay |
| Requested length | What the operator asked for: 30, 60, 90 or 120 seconds |
| Actual length | What really ran. A gap between requested and actual means the break was cut short. |
| Each spot's planned and actual time | Open any break to see this. It shows whether a specific sponsor's spot played in full. |
A break can come up short for good reasons: the operator tapped Return to Live because play resumed, or the safety timer returned to live after a stall. The log shows it either way, which is exactly what makes it trustworthy.
Name files so reports make sense
Your reports are only as readable as your filenames. CommercialCue reads the advertiser from the text before the first -, _ or | in the filename, and uses it to keep two spots from the same advertiser out of one break. Use the same name every time:
- MainStreetPizza-Fall-30s.mp4
- MainStreetPizza-Playoffs-30s.mp4
- RiversideAuto-Fall-60s.mp4
If one file says MainStPizza and another says Main Street Pizza, they count as two advertisers, and your totals split in half. Settle on one spelling per sponsor before the season starts.
Export and filter
Two tools in CommercialCue cover most reporting:
- CSV export of breaks. Every break, with its times and lengths, in a file you can open in Google Sheets or Excel. Keep one export per month in a shared folder as your permanent record.
- Campaign report. Filter by campaign and dates to see breaks run, total plays and each spot's share of plays. This is usually the fastest way to get one sponsor's monthly numbers.
Two things to keep in mind when you read the numbers:
- Only one campaign runs at a time. If you sold a season package, put every sponsor in that season's campaign with their weights, so the campaign report covers everyone.
- Fallback plays happen. If a campaign can't fill a break, CommercialCue fills it from the full library. If a sponsor's count looks low, open the breaks from those games to see exactly which spots played.
Add viewer numbers
CommercialCue tells you what played. Your streaming platform tells you who was watching. Pull views or peak concurrent viewers for each game from YouTube Studio's analytics, Facebook's Insights for your Page, or Twitch's Creator Dashboard. Use the same measure every month so the numbers compare fairly, and say which one you used.
Report what the platform shows and nothing more. Don't multiply plays by viewers and call it impressions unless you can stand behind the math. Honest, modest numbers renew; inflated ones get questioned.
A monthly sponsor email template
Send it in the first week of each month. Copy this and fill in the brackets:
Thanks again for supporting [School] athletics. Here's how your spots did in [Month]:
Games streamed: [number], [list of games and dates]
Times your spot played: [number] ([30/60]-second spot)
Viewers: [number] [views / peak viewers] across those games, from [platform] analytics
See it: [replay link with timestamp]
Coming up in [next month]: [games your package covers].
[One line of thanks or a team highlight.]
[Your name], [role], [phone]
Attach the season-to-date numbers in the last email of the season and use it to open the renewal conversation. For more on packaging and pricing, see our guide to selling sponsorships for school streams.
When a spot didn't run
It will happen. A game goes to overtime and you skip a break, the connection drops, or a break gets cut short when play resumes. Handle it the same way every time:
- Say so in the report. "Your spot was scheduled for the second-quarter break on [date]; we cut back to live early and it didn't air in full."
- Make it good. Add an extra play at the next game, or put them in a halftime break pod, and note it in the next report.
- Fix the cause. If breaks keep getting cut short, the break lengths don't fit the sport's stoppages. Our guide to running sponsor commercials covers where breaks fit.
Monthly reporting checklist
- Filenames use one consistent advertiser name per sponsor.
- Break log exported to CSV and saved for the month.
- Campaign report run for the month's dates.
- Viewer numbers pulled from your platform, using the same measure as last month.
- Short or skipped breaks found and a make-good planned.
- One email per sponsor, with a replay link, sent in the first week of the month.