NBC's new CEO Jeff Zucker has made no secret of the network's need to do well online. There has been speculation that parent General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) wanted someone relatively young at the helm of its media arm, someone from the generation that grew up with the PC.

NBC and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) have recently announced a video service that will run programming on Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) AOL, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and MySpace. The idea is to create a commercial competitor to Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) huge video site, YouTube.

NBC seems to already have a head start in terms of programming online. According to Hitwise, NBC's share of visitors to the top six TV network websites was over 37% in March. ABC, part of Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) followed with 30%. CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) was well behind with a 17% share. Fox has 8%.

NBC Universal has not been a strong performer for GE. A number of Wall Street analysts have argued that it does not belong as a unit in an industrial/financial conglomerate. They further argue that if the entertainment unit were sold or spun off, GE's stock would do better.

All that may be true, unless, of course, NBC Universal starts doing very well. A success online is a critical part of that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.