Nielsen plans to offer a service to prevent piracy of copyrighted video distributed on the Web

It looks like Nielson is entering the online video market!

The Nielsen Co. said it has developed a product that would allow media companies to police the distribution of their video content on sites like YouTube—and ultimately help them make money on the consumer-driven phenomenon.

“The media research firm and parent company of Adweek has partnered with Beaverton, Ore.-based technology vendor Digimarc to launch a new service, Nielsen Digital Media Manager, designed to aid TV networks, independent content producers and various online video distributors track where users are posting and streaming copyrighted video content.”

Rolling out in mid-2008, the new service combines two tracking techniques: digital "watermarking" and "fingerprinting." In tandem, they should provide producers with a complete picture of where their content resides on the Internet.