"NFL's Black Friday Game: A Warning Sign for Traditional TV"

The NFL's decision to stream its first-ever Black Friday game exclusively on Amazon Prime Video is another indication of the decline of traditional TV. Linear TV has been struggling with declining ad revenue and cord-cutting customers. The game is an expansion of Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" deal with the NFL, which has helped boost NFL viewership. The streaming broadcast will feature QR codes linking to Amazon's Black Friday deals, aiming to drive e-commerce sales. ESPN's upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service could further accelerate cord-cutting, posing a potential threat to linear TV. While sports programming is currently helping sustain traditional TV, media companies that have not embraced streaming may face challenges. Fox, in particular, lacks a streaming platform beyond its ad-supported service Tubi.