The Nielsen Co. and Digimarc recently announced that they’ve entered into an agreement to form several joint ventures that leverage the two companies’ core businesses and technologies.

Through the creation of these joint ventures, Digimarc and Nielsen said they will expand and extend their existing relationship to enhance television viewing, facilitate mobile commerce, and create valuable other new opportunities for television networks and consumer brands to more deeply engage with audiences.

“These joint ventures with Digimarc will provide tremendous opportunities for us to deliver innovative, transaction-based solutions for new media businesses, including mobile,” said Itzhak Fisher, head of Nielsen’s global product leadership organization . “By combining Nielsen’s first-class market intelligence – particularly our analysis of video consumption across TV, Internet and mobile – with Digimarc’s rich patent portfolio, we are uniquely positioned to drive exciting new ways to engage consumers through digital entertainment and transactions.”

The two joint venture agreements and a revised license agreement expand and replace the previous Digimarc/Nielsen license and services agreement that was in effect since late 2007. Under the new agreement, Digimarc and Nielsen will work together to develop new products and services, including the expansion and deployment of those that have been under development in connection with the prior agreement. Financial terms of the joint ventures weren’t released.

Each company will own roughly one-half of each joint venture. Digimarc is expected to account for the operations of the joint ventures under the equity method of accounting and will report its portion of the net results of the entities based on its ownership share. It is expected that both Nielsen and Digimarc will provide shared general overhead services to the joint ventures.