With TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and others turning their attention to real-time on-demand audience measurement, The Nielsen Company has been trying to counter the challenge with some VOD and online moves of its own. This week, Nielsen unveiled NORA (Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics), which collects and reports on VOD use in real-time.

The service works through users’ set-top boxes, but doesn’t record their identity. The first client is Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), which began testing NORA last year. Comcast is particularly interested in mapping out trends in VOD use by focusing on the programmer and distributor. It also wants to know whether subscribers favor free programming, premium service or one-off viewing. In the case of movies, Comcast wants to match viewership against the title’s box-office revenue.  Release

-- New online copyright watchdog: Bruce Haymes, who was most recently corporate VP-business affairs at Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Cable, has been tapped to head Nielsen Digital Media Manager, its forthcoming copyright monitoring service; he is SVP-product leader for digital media. The unit was formed last month in collaboration with content security company Digimarc (NSDQ: DMRC). The service uses digital watermarking and fingerprinting to track clients’ content across the web. Nielsen is promising the Digital Media Manager commercially by summer.  Release