The “hasty” departure of A+E  Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc recently “has put the spotlight on A+E Networks as a symbol of the business trends that are troubling the pay-TV arena,” writes Cynthia Littleton in Variety.

Though A+E “is one of television’s most profitable companies,” the report nevertheless notes that “A+E is caught up in the maelstrom of both digital disruption and industry consolidation. Over the long haul, it needs to find new ways of making money from its programming, and its parent companies [Disney and Hearst] need to figure out the optimum ownership structure for the clutch of cablers in its orbit in light of the larger shifts in the marketplace. The conventional wisdom is that a company of A+E’s size is too small to compete in an environment where free-spending streaming services are pacing the race for programming.”

Littleton’s analysis gets much more detailed, and we urge you to click here to read her entire piece.