The NFL's Black Friday game serves as a cautionary signal for the future of traditional television.

• The NFL's first-ever Black Friday game will be exclusively available on Amazon's Prime Video instead of traditional TV. The Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets will face off at 3 p.m. ET.
• An exclusive performance by Garth Brooks will be part of the streaming broadcast, which will also include references to Amazon's Black Friday deals.
• ESPN is working on streaming all its programming, despite sports fans' loyalty to linear TV.

This week, the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets will play in the NFL's first-ever Black Friday game, but it won't be a typical broadcast or cable offering. Instead, the game will be streamed exclusively on Prime Video.

The NFL's decision to switch from a broadcast or cable channel to a streaming platform for its Thanksgiving tradition is another sign of trouble for traditional TV, which has been experiencing declining ad revenue and an increase in cord-cutting.

The Black Friday matchup is an extension of Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" agreement with the NFL, which has resulted in a 6% increase in NFL viewership since the previous year. Additionally, streaming the game on the day after Thanksgiving could help Amazon capture some of the holiday viewership, which set new records last year.

Brian Rolapp, the NFL's chief media and business officer, stated to CNBC's Julia Boorstin that he does not make predictions on ratings, but he believes they will be good. The Black Friday game will commence at 3 p.m. ET.

The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys have traditionally played football on Thanksgiving Day, and this year, Fox, CBS, and NBC will all broadcast games on the holiday.

The NFL and Amazon are hoping to make the Black Friday game an annual tradition, as executives announced Tuesday at a media conference. To boost Amazon's e-commerce sales, the streaming broadcast will include QR codes at the bottom of the screen that will link to some of Amazon's Black Friday deals. Following the game, country music icon Garth Brooks will perform an exclusive postgame concert.

Live sports programming is increasingly moving from cable to streaming platforms, with examples such as Amazon's "Thursday Night Football" deal and YouTube TV's "NFL Sunday Ticket" package. In October, Warner Bros. Discovery introduced its Bleacher Report Sports Add-On Tier on its streaming platform Max, providing subscribers with hundreds of live sports events.

ESPN’s pivot

ESPN's dominance in sports programming on traditional TV may soon end as it plans to bring all its programming to streaming through a direct-to-consumer release.

Despite the rise of streaming, sports programming is keeping cable and traditional TV relevant, at least for now.

In July, Nielsen reported that traditional TV usage was less than half of the overall TV usage. However, linear TV viewing increased in August and September, with the jump mainly due to the return of college and professional football. ESPN also had the top 11 telecasts in September, with 10 of them being football-related.

Despite a decline in overall TV revenue, Disney reported a "modest increase" in ad revenue for ESPN in their most recent quarterly report.

The linear television industry is being sustained by sports programming, with ESPN playing a significant role, according to Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen.

ESPN's direct-to-consumer service could pose a fatal threat to linear TV's dominance in sports programming, as it could offer much more than its current ESPN+ app and potentially push sports fans to abandon the bundle altogether.

According to UBS media and telecom analyst John Hodulik, ESPN's DTC product online may accelerate cord cutting if the pricing is right. This is what people are waiting for.

Disney will launch a direct-to-consumer ESPN flagship no later than 2025, as CEO Bob Iger announced on Nov. 8, putting the sports programming world on notice.

Not all individuals believe that ESPN's streaming efforts will cause significant harm rapidly.

According to Patrick Crakes, a sports media consultant and former Fox Sports executive, ESPN cannot simply switch to direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming and maintain the same economics from the pay TV bundle. Despite the decline of pay TV, there is no DTC streaming product that can scale like it.

Crakes stated that the future of pay TV bundles may resemble a reimagined version, which includes streaming products within the traditional economics of the bundle. This is similar to the recent Disney-Charter agreement, where Disney+ and ESPN+ are now included in some Spectrum cable packages.

Media companies that have not yet transitioned to streaming may face challenges in the future.

How vulnerable is Fox?

The slowing ad market will result in the biggest loss for Fox, according to Nollen of Macquarie.

Fox lacks a streaming platform beyond its free, ad-supported service Tubi, unlike other media companies such as NBCUniversal through Peacock that have shifted their focus to streaming ventures.

Fox decided to increase their investment in the bundle a few years ago, and it has been successful. However, if cord-cutting continues to grow and more people choose to stream sports elsewhere, I am unsure of Fox's strategy.

Fox cited a quote from Fox Corp. CFO Steve Tomsic at the Bank of America media conference in September when asked for comment.

I can envision a scenario where ESPNs of the world go direct-to-consumer (DTC), but I'm uncertain about its impact on us and the industry. If there is a sports bundle that spans multiple network providers, Fox will likely be the first choice for people looking to combine our content with their service due to our strong sports offering.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.