Nielsen, Digimarc Announce Web Initiative

NEW YORK/BEAVERTON, December 6: The Nielsen Company and
Digimarc Corporation are launching Nielsen Digital Media Manager, which aims to
provide media companies with a reliable way of tracking their content online.

The system will enable media companies, social networks,
peer-to-peer services and user-generated content sites to monitor and manage
the distribution of media content across the Internet, allowing them to
identify what titles are being shared, viewed, mashed up or accessed. Digital
watermarking and fingerprinting technologies, meanwhile, will assist in
preventing unauthorized access to content. Nielsen already uses digital
watermarking to encode 95 percent of national television programming for its
television ratings service, and the new service will focus initially on the
online distribution of television content in the U.S. The companies expect
these new solutions to be available in mid 2008. Nielsen and Digimarc also plan
to work with the media industry to digitally watermark DVDs, movies, music,
video games and other content.

"We believe these services will stimulate the growth of
online video distribution, to the benefit of consumers, content providers and
distributors," said David Calhoun, the chairman and CEO of the Nielsen
Company. "Until now, the lack of an independent, industry-accepted
identification and tracking service has limited the transactions that allow the
delivery of media content over the Internet. Now with our new-media
identification and management services unique ability to identify content
throughout the Internet, both content providers and distributors can protect
and monetize the value of online media."

"Digital watermarking enables content producers to
harness the power of the Internet and expand audiences for entertainment media
by identifying media content wherever it goes," added Bruce Davis, the
chairman and CEO of Digimarc. "The ability to identify content enables
accountability, insightful marketing, and enhanced consumer experiences. This
initiative can turn a perceived threat to the entertainment industry into a
manageable solution that inspires an exciting new era of digital
entertainment."

—By Mansha Daswani