It still amazes me that much of the mainstream media thinks that traditional television networks are at death's door due to web-based services like YouTube. Sure, you can get your video fix on YouTube instantly and you can find almost any kind of content easily. But there's one huge differentiator here -- the experience. Are all American video content consumers going to move over to their PC screens to watch tiny videos in a window instead of that nice, big television screen with stereo sound? Doubtful.

To me, YouTube is a swell novelty -- but it can't touch the experience of a television program on a bigger screen. Maybe it's just me. The same arguments goes for pirated video downloads. Why spend hours downloading content that *may* have dubious quality and horrid sound when you can rent a perfect copy with factory sound for a few bucks? Experience be damned -- just give me free (I guess this is what some customers think). But then again, YouTube has consumer-created content you just can't get on broadcast television -- and that is the kicker for many. It's *real* reality TV.

But YouTube does make the traditional networks create more compelling content to keep younger viewers and such. On that note, it looks like the traditional TV networks here in the U.S. are forming strategies starting now.

These networks seem to have a love-hate relationship of sorts with YouTube. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) just recently told Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) to take down all links to copyrighted content, and NBC has done the same (only to partner with the video-sharing site later). Do the networks see consumer-created content as threat/competitor, or do they just see YouTube as a simple way for copyright violations to prosper?

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that the expiration of Roche Holding's (OTC: RHHBY) Tamiflu stockpiles poses a dilemma for some poor Asian countries of whether to spend millions and restock with the drug.
• The Financial Times wrote that China has launched its first navigation satellite.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The Associated Press reported that Michael Dell outlined corporate changes in a company wide email, and said he will "quash" bonuses for 2006, reduce managers, would not hire a new COO, push for faster product development and expand into new businesses at Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL).
• The New York Times reported that Simon Property Group is expected to bid $1.56B for Mills Corp (NYSE: MLS).
• The Los Angeles Times reported that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal will name Jeff Zucker as its new CEO this week.
• According to the Detroit Free Press, DaimlerChrysler AG's (NYSE: DCX) Chrysler Group may cut up to 10,000 jobs next week.

Doug McIntyre this morning posted on General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) decision to cut $750 million in costs from its NBC Universal unit. What interests me about this story is the signal it sends to Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal's television group, that his time at the helm is likely over.

As a GE shareholder I have been less than pleased with the job that current CEO Jeff Immelt has been doing. GE stock is way below its 2001 peak and while it has recovered from its low, the logic for having all of GE's diverse businesses together strikes me as elusive. Thus GE is suffering from a conglomerate discount.

I think Immelt has had his chance but he's clearly failed to turn GE into a growth stock because he has been unable to re-conceive GE's corporate strategy as his predecessor did. I also think it's time to jettison the formerly admired Jeff Zucker, protege of NBC Universal television group's chairman, Robert Wright. With the success of Walt Disney Company's (NYSE: DIS) ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives, it's a mistake to think that networks can't create popular programs.

It's just that NBC has lost the edge it enjoyed in the 1990s. And it's time for changes at the top.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He owns shares of GE, not Disney.