Introduction

Sponsorship and media rights remain some of the most valuable assets in the global sports and entertainment industry. Yet, despite the billions invested each year, the way these assets are priced has not kept pace with the sophistication of modern marketing or the expectations of today’s boards and investors. Most sponsorship deals are still structured around impressions — a metric inherited from traditional advertising that counts how many people could have seen a brand, without regard for whether it was truly visible, for how long, or in what context.

This reliance on impressions creates a fundamental blind spot at the executive level. For sponsors, it means millions spent on visibility that may last only fractions of a second. For rights holders, it often means leaving money on the table by undervaluing assets that deliver sustained, high-quality exposure. And for broadcasters, it introduces unnecessary risk in proving that contracts have been honored. In an era where financial accountability is non-negotiable, impression-based pricing increasingly looks outdated and incomplete.

A new metric is emerging to address this gap: Cost per Exposure Second (CPeS). Instead of estimating value based on potential reach, CPeS ties pricing directly to actual on-screen presence. Every second a logo or brand is visible — weighted by its size, position, and clarity — becomes an auditable unit of value. This transforms sponsorship from a matter of guesswork into a system of verifiable, data-driven transactions.

For executives, the implications are profound. CPeS not only enhances transparency and trust in negotiations but also enables more accurate ROI calculations, smarter allocation of marketing spend, and stronger justification of premium pricing. It represents a shift from selling broad promises to delivering measurable outcomes.

This blog explores how the industry is moving from guesswork to CPeS, why automated exposure scoring makes this possible, and what strategic advantages await organizations that embrace this model early. For leaders tasked with maximizing revenue, defending sponsorship investments, or driving shareholder value, understanding CPeS is not optional — it is essential to staying competitive in a data-driven marketplace.

The Limits of Impression-Based Pricing

For decades, the sports and media industry has relied on impressions as the core currency of sponsorship and advertising deals. The familiar Cost per Mille (CPM) model prices inventory by the number of times a message is theoretically delivered to one thousand viewers. While this approach provides a simple, industry-standard way to trade media, it fails to capture the true value of sponsorship visibility in live sports broadcasts.

At the executive level, this reliance on impressions introduces a significant blind spot. An “impression” assumes equal value regardless of context. Whether a logo flashes for half a second in the corner of the screen or dominates the broadcast feed during a critical highlight, both count the same. This creates a fundamental mismatch between what rights holders sell, what broadcasters deliver, and what sponsors expect in return.

The result is mispricing and misalignment:

Rights holders package and price deals without concrete evidence of how much visibility they are actually selling.
Broadcasters distribute sponsorship inventory that may or may not meet contractual expectations, leaving room for disputes.
Sponsors face the greatest risk — committing millions to placements that appear impactful on paper but underdeliver in reality.

C-level decision makers understand the consequences of such uncertainty. Without precise valuation, negotiations are shaped by assumptions rather than data. Pricing becomes speculative, eroding trust between stakeholders and making it harder to defend premium rates. In a market where transparency and accountability are increasingly demanded by investors and boards, this reliance on impressions looks outdated and insufficient.

Executives are also acutely aware of how rapidly consumption habits are changing. Streaming platforms, second-screen behaviors, and short-form highlights mean that sponsorship exposure is fragmented and nonlinear. A single “impression count” fails to reflect these realities. Modern valuation requires a metric that captures not just whether an audience saw a logo, but how long it was visible, how prominently it appeared, and in what context it was delivered.

This gap sets the stage for the rise of Cost per Exposure Second (CPeS) — a metric designed to address the shortcomings of impression-based pricing and restore confidence in sponsorship valuation.

Introducing Cost Per Exposure Second (CPeS)

The limitations of impression-based pricing have created demand for a more precise, transparent, and auditable standard. That standard is emerging in the form of Cost Per Exposure Second (CPeS). Unlike CPM, which counts potential audience reach, CPeS measures the actual time a brand is visible on screen — weighted by factors such as size, position, and context.

In practical terms, CPeS transforms every visible second of brand exposure into a measurable asset. If a sponsor’s logo remains clearly displayed for ten seconds in a central part of the broadcast feed, that exposure has inherently more value than a fleeting corner placement. Instead of treating both moments as identical “impressions,” CPeS quantifies them with precision.

For executives, this shift has far-reaching implications:

Accountability and Transparency
Each second of exposure can be documented, audited, and presented as evidence during negotiations. This eliminates the guesswork that often erodes trust between rights holders, broadcasters, and sponsors.
True Value Alignment
Pricing finally reflects reality. Sponsors pay in direct proportion to the value of screen presence they receive, while rights holders can justify premium rates for highly visible, long-duration placements.
Better Investment Decisions
With exposure measured per second, sponsors can compare deals across sports, formats, or geographies on a like-for-like basis. This enables executives to reallocate budgets with confidence, prioritizing partnerships that deliver sustained and prominent visibility.
Stronger Negotiating Position
CPeS empowers rights holders to move beyond flat-rate or bundled pricing models. Deals can be structured around guaranteed exposure seconds, creating a new level of flexibility and sophistication in contract design.

At its core, CPeS represents the professionalization of sponsorship valuation. It shifts the discussion from theoretical impressions to verified visibility. For C-suites managing multi-million-dollar media rights or sponsorship portfolios, this transition is more than a refinement — it is a strategic evolution that aligns spend with measurable outcomes.

As the industry increasingly demands data-driven justification for every dollar spent, CPeS is positioned to become the new baseline currency for sponsorship valuation.

How Automated Exposure Scoring Makes CPeS Auditable

For CPeS to succeed as a new standard, it must be more than a concept — it requires a transparent, repeatable way to measure every second of brand visibility. This is where automated exposure scoring powered by computer vision and AI comes into play.

At its core, exposure scoring calculates value using a straightforward formula: Size × Position × Duration. While simple in principle, the execution requires advanced technology capable of analyzing thousands of video frames per minute with consistency and accuracy.

Size: How large is the brand or logo on the screen relative to the overall frame? A pitch-side board that takes up 15% of the screen has greater visibility than a small badge on a jersey sleeve.
Position: Where does the exposure occur? Central placements near the field of play command higher attention than peripheral or partially obscured logos.
Duration: How long does the brand remain visible without interruption? A five-second clear view in a replay highlight carries more value than a single fleeting glimpse.

By multiplying these three factors, each moment of exposure is converted into a quantifiable line item. This process removes ambiguity. A sponsor can no longer dispute whether their brand was “seen enough,” because the data provides objective proof, second by second.

From an executive perspective, the real breakthrough is auditability. Automated systems can generate detailed reports that log every exposure event with timecodes, screen percentage, and cumulative duration. Instead of manual review or subjective interpretation, organizations have access to verifiable evidence. This creates an audit trail that strengthens negotiations, contract compliance, and long-term partnership trust.

Automation also ensures scalability. A single broadcast of a major sports event can span several hours, often across multiple camera angles and highlight packages. Human monitoring of this content is impractical, costly, and prone to error. AI-powered recognition tools—such as brand and logo detection APIs—perform this task consistently, enabling executives to oversee entire portfolios of sponsorships with confidence.

In essence, automated exposure scoring transforms CPeS from an abstract metric into a fully operational, evidence-based pricing model. It gives rights holders the power to sell with precision, broadcasters the ability to validate delivery, and sponsors the assurance that every dollar spent corresponds to documented visibility.

Real-World Applications & Strategic Benefits

For senior executives managing multi-million-dollar sponsorship portfolios, the promise of Cost per Exposure Second (CPeS) is not just theoretical. It translates directly into measurable advantages across negotiations, operations, and strategic planning.

Smarter Sponsorship Negotiations

With exposure data broken down into auditable seconds, rights holders can negotiate from a position of strength. Instead of offering broad “package impressions,” they can present precise evidence of how long and how prominently a brand will appear. This allows for differentiated pricing — for example, premium rates for exposure during live highlights or high-audience moments, and adjusted rates for less visible placements.

Optimized Media Packages

Broadcasters and event organizers can reconfigure sponsorship offerings based on quantifiable visibility zones. A pitch-side digital board that delivers thousands of high-quality seconds can be valued differently from a less prominent banner. This creates tiered packages that better match sponsor budgets and expectations while maximizing yield per asset.

Benchmarking Across Events and Markets

CPeS enables executives to compare performance across sports, geographies, or platforms using a common denominator: seconds of exposure. This benchmarking capability provides clarity when deciding whether to increase investment in one league, diversify into emerging sports, or renegotiate underperforming contracts.

Improved ROI Projections

Sponsors gain greater confidence in allocating marketing spend. When every second of visibility is tracked, executives can link exposure directly to downstream KPIs such as brand recall, engagement, or sales uplift. This evidence strengthens the case for sustained or increased sponsorship investment in boardroom discussions.

Trust and Transparency

Perhaps most importantly, CPeS builds credibility. When every deal can be backed by auditable data, disputes decrease and relationships strengthen. Rights holders and sponsors alike can shift conversations away from defending numbers and toward planning growth strategies.

For executives, the strategic benefit is clear: CPeS moves sponsorship from being an expense line justified by estimates to a measurable investment governed by accountability. In an era where shareholder scrutiny and budget discipline are constant, adopting exposure-driven valuation models provides a critical competitive advantage.

Integrating AI-Powered APIs to Deliver CPeS

While the concept of Cost per Exposure Second (CPeS) is compelling, its practical implementation depends on technology that can analyze vast amounts of broadcast and digital content in real time. This is where AI-powered computer vision APIs provide the operational backbone. They transform hours of footage into structured exposure data without the delays, costs, or inconsistencies of manual monitoring.

From Recognition to Measurement

Brand and Logo Recognition: APIs automatically detect logos frame by frame, capturing every instance of visibility. This ensures that no exposure event — whether a sponsor banner, a jersey patch, or a replay backdrop — is overlooked.
Object Detection and Image Labelling: These tools calculate placement within the screen, identifying whether a brand is central, peripheral, or partially obstructed.
Time-based Logging: By mapping visibility across consecutive frames, APIs record duration accurately, enabling second-by-second valuation.

Together, these capabilities deliver the full exposure scoring formula: Size × Position × Duration. What once required teams of human auditors now becomes a scalable, automated process.

Scalability for Rights Holders and Sponsors

Executives responsible for global sponsorship portfolios need solutions that scale seamlessly. Cloud-based APIs provide exactly that — able to handle multiple events, leagues, or broadcast channels simultaneously, without the need for heavy in-house infrastructure. Reports can be generated in near real time, keeping negotiations agile and evidence-based.

Customization for Strategic Advantage

While ready-to-deploy APIs can deliver immediate value, some organizations will benefit from tailored solutions. Custom development allows integration with proprietary analytics systems, alignment with unique contract clauses, or even inclusion of advanced KPIs such as share-of-voice across multiple sponsors. Though such customization requires upfront investment, it becomes a long-term asset — reducing operational costs, increasing accuracy, and providing differentiation in highly competitive markets.

Turning Data into Executive Insight

Perhaps most importantly, API-driven systems do not just produce raw numbers; they produce board-ready intelligence. Sponsorship teams can present executives with clear dashboards showing:

Verified seconds of exposure delivered to each sponsor.
Comparative value across different placements and matches.
Evidence to support renewals, upsells, or reallocation of spend.

By embedding these insights into strategy discussions, C-suites move from reactive justification to proactive growth planning.

In short, AI-powered APIs bridge the gap between vision and execution. They operationalize CPeS, making it not only a theoretical framework but a living, auditable system that elevates the transparency and sophistication of sponsorship economics.

Conclusion

Sponsorship and media rights have long been valued through impression-based models that fail to reflect true audience exposure. For executives managing multi-million-dollar partnerships, this creates unnecessary risk: pricing is speculative, accountability is weak, and negotiations often rely on assumptions rather than evidence.

Cost per Exposure Second (CPeS) changes that equation. By tying sponsorship value directly to visibility — measured in seconds and weighted by size and position — CPeS turns every on-screen moment into a quantifiable asset. The shift is not merely incremental; it represents a structural transformation in how rights holders, broadcasters, and sponsors define, negotiate, and justify value.

What makes this transition possible is automation. With AI-powered exposure scoring, every second of visibility can be captured, logged, and audited at scale. Brand recognition tools, object detection systems, and other computer vision APIs remove subjectivity and provide verifiable data. For sponsors, this means paying only for what is truly delivered. For rights holders, it means unlocking new pricing models that withstand scrutiny. For boards and investors, it ensures that sponsorship is treated as an accountable investment, not a discretionary cost.

Looking forward, the organizations that embrace CPeS will position themselves ahead of the curve. They will command greater trust from partners, justify premium rates with evidence, and optimize sponsorship portfolios with confidence. Those that cling to outdated impression-based pricing risk being left behind in a market increasingly driven by transparency and data.

For the C-suite, the takeaway is clear: CPeS is not just another metric — it is a new standard for accountability, efficiency, and growth in sports sponsorship. The time to integrate exposure-based valuation is now, before competitors set the benchmark.

Screen-Time Pricing: From Guesswork to CPeS