Systems and methods are operable for monitoring the transmission of media content events. An exemplary embodiment receives a media content stream at a media device from a media content transmission device at a first transmission rate, wherein the media content stream comprises at least one media content event selected for presentation on a media presentation device; stores at least a portion of the media content stream in a media device buffer; calculates a buffer metric; transmitting the buffer metric to the media content transmission device; and receives the media content stream from the media content transmission device at a second transmission rate based on the transmitted buffer metric.