Raphael Stevens

The NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game will be on Amazon’s Prime Video rather than traditional TV. The Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets play at 3 p.m. ET.
The streaming broadcast will feature nods to Amazon’s Black Friday deals and an exclusive performance by Garth Brooks.
Sports fans have so far remained loyal to linear TV, but even cable stalwart ESPN is working on offering all its programming to streaming audiences.

Jacob Kupferman | Getty Images

The Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets face off in the National Football League’s first ever Black Friday game this week — but it’s not going to be the usual broadcast or cable offering. The game will stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The NFL’s decision to start a new Thanksgiving tradition with a streaming platform instead of a broadcast or cable channel is yet another indicator of trouble for linear, or traditional, TV, which has suffered from slumping ad revenue and customers cutting the cable cord.

The Black Friday matchup is an expansion of Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” deal with the NFL, which has helped drive a 6% jump in NFL viewership since last year. And with the game streaming the day after Thanksgiving, Amazon could capture some of the holiday viewership, which broke records last year.
“I don’t make predictions on ratings,” Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin this week. “But I think they’ll be good.” The Black Friday game kicks off at 3 p.m. ET.
Thanksgiving Day is already a football tradition, with the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys headlining matchups through the years. Fox, CBS and NBC all will broadcast games on the holiday.

The NFL and Amazon hope the Black Friday game will become an annual tradition, executives said Tuesday at a media conference. In a push to drive Amazon e-commerce sales, the streaming broadcast will feature QR codes at the bottom of the screen that will link to some of Amazon’s Black Friday deals. Country music icon Garth Brooks will take the stage in an exclusive postgame concert.
Amazon’s 11-year “Thursday Night Football” deal and YouTube TV’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” package are just a few examples of live sports programming making the jump from cable to streaming. In October, Warner Bros. Discovery rolled out its Bleacher Report Sports Add-On Tier for the company’s flagship streaming platform Max, offering subscribers hundreds of live sports events.

ESPN’s pivot

ESPN has long ruled sports programming on traditional TV. But that could all change when the cable stalwart brings all its programming to streaming, in a planned direct-to-consumer release.
Yet even as the streaming trend picks up, sports programming is helping keep cable and traditional TV alive, for the moment.
Earlier this year, data firm Nielsen reported that traditional TV made up less than half of overall TV usage in July. But linear popped back in August and September. The jump was largely driven by the return of college and professional football, Nielsen said in a report released last month. ESPN also snagged the top 11 telecasts for the month of September, 10 of which were football-related.
ESPN has so far weathered the storm of the TV decline, capturing a “modest increase” in ad revenue in parent company Disney’s most recent quarterly report, even as overall TV revenue for the company fell.
Sports programming is holding the linear television industry together, according to Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen. And ESPN is a huge part of that.
But ESPN’s dominance in sports programming could pose a potentially fatal threat to linear TV. When ESPN unleashes its direct-to-consumer service, which would offer much more than its current ESPN+ app, it could be the push sports fans are waiting for to abandon the bundle altogether.
“When ESPN puts their DTC product online, depending on the pricing, it may create a critical mass of live sports outside of the bundle to accelerate cord cutting,” said UBS media and telecom analyst John Hodulik. “That’s what I think people are waiting for.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC’s Boorstin on Nov. 8 that Disney will launch a direct-to-consumer ESPN flagship no later than 2025, putting the sports programming world on notice.
But not everyone is convinced that ESPN’s foray into streaming will do too much damage too quickly.
“When you look at the economics that ESPN gets from the pay TV bundle, they cannot just step away and pirouette to DTC and everything stays the same,” said sports media consultant and former Fox Sports executive Patrick Crakes. “There’s no DTC streaming product that scales like pay TV, even today, with pay TV in decline.”
The future looks more like a reimagined pay TV bundle, Crakes said, with streaming products included in the traditional economics of bundle. It’s reminiscent of the recent Disney-Charter agreement, in which Disney+ and ESPN+ are now included in some Spectrum cable packages.
But challenges could lie ahead for media companies that have not yet made the jump to bring their programming to the streaming world.

How vulnerable is Fox?

A FOX Sports TV camera operator during the week 5 NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on October 11, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.
David J. Griffin | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

The biggest loser of the slowing ad market will be Fox, Macquarie’s Nollen said. (Macquarie Group and its affiliates own a net long of 0.5% or more of the equity securities of Fox Corp.)
Other media companies, including NBCUniversal through its Peacock service, have pivoted in large part to streaming ventures, where ad revenue through those platforms can partially offset the slump in linear. The problem with Fox? It doesn’t have a streaming platform beyond its free, ad-supported service Tubi.
“Fox made the decision to double down on the bundle a few years ago and then they’ve done surprisingly well for it,” said Nollen. “But if cord-cutting accelerates and everyone picks up streaming sports elsewhere, I just don’t understand what Fox’s plan is.”
When asked for comment, Fox referenced a quote made by Fox Corp. CFO Steve Tomsic at the Bank of America media conference in September.
“I can see a world where the ESPNs of this world do go DTC, but I’m not sure how impactful that will be for us or the entire industry,” he said. “If there is the emergence of some sort of sports bundle that is across different network providers, then the first port of call is going to be Fox in terms of people wanting to aggregate our content with their service just given how strong our sports offering is.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

TikTok Shop launched in September in the U.S., following in the footsteps of other social media platforms launching shopping platforms.
Shoppers remain divided on whether they love or hate the shopping feature.
Some are taking advantage of the low prices while others question the ethics of some of the products.

TikTok has officially launched its e-commerce service TikTok Shop in the US. 
Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Consumers are increasingly turning to social media for their shopping this holiday season, and TikTok’s latest venture into e-commerce has emerged at the forefront.
The platform introduced TikTok Shop in the U.S. in September as an in-app shopping experience, capitalizing on the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend. The shop gives opportunities to both content creators who could sell their own products and avid TikTok users who could buy directly on the app, following in the footsteps of other social media apps like Instagram.

Though TikTok Shop previously faced backlash and was forced to shut down in Indonesia, consumers are increasingly trending toward buying off of social media. According to a recent Shopify-Gallup survey, nearly half of Generation Z respondents – people born after 1997, according to the Pew Research Center – said they plan on buying some holiday gifts on social media apps. And 86% of Gen Z shoppers say social media influences their shopping habits, according to an ICSC report.
One of those TikTok Shop enthusiasts is 29-year-old Chuck Vaughn, who called the TikTok Shop phenomenon “a gold rush.”
“There’s some crazy coupons on there combined with sale prices, and then you end up getting things 50% off or 60% off,” the Tennessee resident told CNBC. “There’s no good reason to not be using it as far as I can tell.”
Though some argue that using the platform strips shoppers of their privacy, Vaughn said it’s clear that consumers today are already giving up data in most of their apps. Instead, he’s leaned into the trend, with his most recent purchase being Pokémon cards. Whereas the market price for cards would normally be around $70, Vaughn said, he bought his on TikTok Shop for just $33 with free shipping – and they arrived in under a week.
As he heads into the holiday season, Vaughn said he plans on doing at least some of his holiday shopping on the app and is recommending his friends and family to use TikTok Shop as well.

Social media and commerce

With in-app purchases, the ability to purchase quickly is even more prevalent. It’s a trend that was especially bolstered by the earlier days of the pandemic, when people were largely staying home either due to mandates or worries about catching Covid. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Americans spent $791.7 billion on e-commerce during 2020.
According to TikTok, the Shop platform has over 200,000 sellers, and the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag has over 77 billion views as of this month. This holiday season, TikTok added that the Shop feature will include multiple promotions, coupons and deals on trending products.
Though in-person commerce has made a comeback post-pandemic, according to Gartner digital commerce analyst Ant Duffin, consumers’ propensity to buy online has undoubtedly surged in the past few years.
The social media commerce landscape has constructed a particularly interesting ecosystem made up of brands, creators, technology and consumers, each playing a role in bolstering the e-commerce space, Duffin told CNBC.
“What you’re now starting to see is TikTok bucking the trend where they’re providing a complete social commerce ecosystem of tactics, from paid advertising to short-form video through to immersive shops and being able to transact all within the app,” Duffin said.
This new realm could be a “fresh battleground” for small and medium-sized businesses, according to Duffin. Especially over the holiday season, smaller businesses can raise awareness and build their brands successfully on the social media app and fill in the gaps for brands looking to capitalize on new market opportunities.
However, Duffin said he does not believe TikTok Shop will be able to rival the likes of Amazon or have an impact beyond a stocking stuffer purchase just yet.

Questioning the ethics

But not everyone is a fan of being able to scroll and purchase simultaneously.
Grace Romine, a sophomore at Indiana University, said she first found the Shop feature to be annoying, especially with the increased advertisements. She also said she found it was drowning out some of the creative content produced by creators on the app.
Romine said she doesn’t agree with some of the ethics of the products being sold on the app, especially with lower prices begging broader conversations about where those products are coming from.
“TikTok Shop does offer the opportunity for small businesses to succeed, and small businesses really need e-commerce platforms,” she said. “But a lot of the products I’ve seen that thousands of people are promoting are not small businesses.”
She added: “They are, you know, the $4 purse, and if they’re selling it for $4, what are the ethics behind that? Is it sustainably made? What kind of labor was used to make this product?”
Romine said the combination of fast fashion and overconsumption work together to sour her taste for the Shop feature, even as she sees classmates walking around campus in sweatshirts she’s seen ads for on the app. She’s also eager to see how the app adapts to its “first Christmas” in the holiday market.
For Fordham senior and history major Ana Kevorkian, the ads have become increasingly tempting even though she’s “principally opposed” to buying anything on TikTok Shop. She said she’s specifically had her eye on a leather purse being sold for $3, but she’s still questioning the ethics behind it.
“I try to be intentional about my shopping, and I think TikTok Shop is the exact opposite of intentional shopping,” Kevorkian said, adding that it encourages people to overspend and overconsume.
“It takes 10 seconds to go onto Safari and buy something, and that’s not a huge inconvenience,” she said. “If we need to shop so much that that is too much, then there is something wrong with the culture.”
Still, every time that leather purse pops up on her For You Page, Kevorkian said she hesitates. Since she’s never bought anything on the app, she has an automatic 70% discount for her first purchase. More

Retailers have a challenge this season: Winning over holiday shoppers who are holding out for cheaper prices or other incentives to spend.
That could increase the importance of promotional events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Companies have tried to create urgency with limited-time discounts, eye-catching merchandise or free events.

Target hosted a free “Winter Wonderland” event in New York City to show off the holiday season’s hottest toys. It’s an example of the extra effort that retailers are putting in to motivate shoppers.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

NEW YORK CITY — On a recent weekend in downtown Manhattan, a long line of families with strollers and small children lined up to step inside of Target’s “Wonderland”
Santa’s helpers handed out free cookies. Mario and Luigi from Nintendo’s “Super Mario” video game posed for photos. A toy train winded through a miniature village made from the retailer’s gingerbread kits. And children looked wide-eyed at some of the season’s hottest toys, including a large Barbie Dreamhouse.

Getting people to show up was one thing. Turning the event into a sale is another entirely.
Target’s pop-up event, which will travel to Dallas and Los Angeles, captures the lengths that retailers are going to this holiday season to try to motivate shoppers to open their wallets. Caution and uncertainty has colored the outlook for the peak shopping season as inflation, higher interest rates, the return of student loan payments and consumers’ emphasis on experiences take a bite out of shoppers’ budgets for gifts and decor.
Holiday spending is expected to grow at a more modest rate than in recent years, as customers seek out deals. Holiday-related sales in November and December are expected to rise by 3% to 4% year over year, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s a sharp drop from the pandemic years, but about in line with the pre-pandemic growth average of 3.6%.
Over the past two weeks, many retailers, including Walmart, Nordstrom and Target have said shoppers have made fewer store trips, postponed big purchases or held out for better deals. This week, Lowe’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s all cut their sales forecasts. Even some retailers that raised their outlooks, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, referred to dynamics outside of their control that could dampen spending.
Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor for market research firm Circana, said this year will bring a “complex Christmas” for retailers.

The average credit card balance is at a 10-year high. Fall weather was unseasonably warm in many parts of the country, delaying the need to spring for new sweaters or winter coats. And a steady drip of Black Friday deals, started early in November at many retailers, has also delayed the rush, as some shoppers bet that the best deals are still coming.
Early holiday sales have lagged, despite many early promotions that coincided with Amazon’s Prime deals event in October and Black Friday sales beginning in November, according to the market research firm, which was formerly called The NPD Group. Holiday shoppers spent 7% less in dollars and 6% less in units from mid-October to mid-November compared with the year-ago period, Circana found.
“Consumers have kind of held back,” Cohen said.
That delay in spending puts pressure on retailers for the rest of the season. It has led retailers like Target to pull out all the stops this year generate demand.
“You’ve got to create impulse, ” he said. “You’ve got to create the sense of urgency, and you’ve got to create the desire to buy.”

Barbie dolls (R) are displayed for sale ahead of Black Friday at a Walmart Supercenter on November 14, 2023 in Burbank, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Black Friday state of mind

Among the biggest themes this holiday season: shoppers are hungry for deals and willing to wait for them.
In an interview with CNBC last week, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said customers are holding out until they feel like they can nab the lowest price.
“We are seeing that consumers are leaning heavily into events, promotional type periods,” he said, adding that “some of the periods before and after those events or promotional periods are weaker.”
Walmart saw weaker sales in the last two weeks of October compared to the rest of the three-month period, a potentially worrying sign about consumer health, Rainey said. Yet he said sales began to pick up again in early November as Walmart debuted its Black Friday deals.
Footwear company Steve Madden saw a similar dynamic. On an earnings call in early November, CEO Edward Rosenfeld said customers are often showing up in a big way only when there’s a promotion.
“The shopping pattern is becoming more and more event driven,” he said, adding that “in between, the valleys have been a little deeper.”
He said the company hopes that as key shopping holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday kick in, that “customers will really show up.”
Lowe’s and Best Buy have noticed a deal-hunting mentality, too. Both companies cut their full-year sales forecasts after weaker-than-expected fiscal third quarters.
Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said shoppers have postponed bigger projects and major purchases, such as new refrigerators.
To counteract that, Ellison said the home improvement retailer has rolled out deep discounts on appliances and launched a new lowest price guarantee.
“We’re going to have a sustained drumbeat of great offers for the entire holiday season, starting this week,” he said on a call with CNBC. “So there are lots of efforts going into creating a little bit more urgency around getting our customers to come in for the holiday season.”
Discounting levels at Best Buy have increased from last year and are even higher than before the pandemic, CEO Corie Barry said on an earnings call with investors. She said the company anticipates a season punctuated by moments when shoppers believe they can get the best prices.
“Since we are preparing for a customer who is very deal focused, we expect shopping patterns will look even more similar to historical holiday periods than they did last year with customers shopping activity concentrated on Black Friday week, Cyber Monday and the last two weeks of December,” she said.

Shoppers at Bloomingdale’s stores and on the company’s website can browse a collection of purple suit jackets, sequin dresses, gourmet candies and even candy-themed cuff-links inspired by the “Wonka” movie.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

A bit of razzle dazzle

Along with deals, retailers are trying to grab customers’ attention — and dollars — with special events, limited-time offers and eye-catching merchandise.
Some retailers, such as Best Buy, are trying to rush shoppers to hit the “buy” button by dangling short-term sales. The consumer electronics retailer debuted “Best Buy Drops,” flash sales events through its app that feature short-term price cuts on limited edition items or popular product releases.
Target, Ulta Beauty and LVMH-owned Sephora have had “Deals of the Day” with popular brands or gift items that are only discounted for 24 hours.
Others have tried to attract shoppers with fun and free experiences, as they bet that will put consumers in the frame of mind to spend.

Macy’s is carrying a special collection of Disney merchandise for the holidays. Customers can also virtually try on Disney princess dresses in a “magic mirror” at the company’s flagship store in New York City.

At Macy’s flagship store in New York City’s Herald Square, shoppers can twirl in Disney princess dresses in an augmented reality-powered “magic mirror” before shopping a special collection of Disney jewelry, toys, apparel and more that’s available online and across its stores.
In mid-December, all Macy’s stores will host beauty-themed events with DJs, free makeovers and fragrance bottle engraving. At all stores, customers will find stations where they can create their own beauty gift sets.
With special events and seasonal displays, the department store wants to “bring the retail-tainment factor” and “create a little bit of a party on our floor,” Chief Merchandising Officer Nata Dvir said.
Macy’s higher-end department store, Bloomingdale’s, is carrying a colorful collection of chocolates, candy-themed cuff links, purple blazers, sequin dresses and more inspired by “Wonka,” the prequel movie that debuts in December.
As Nordstrom sees slower traffic, the retailer is trying to draw shoppers with extra incentives and more convenient options, Chief Merchandising Officer Jamie Nordstrom said. Holiday shoppers get extra rewards points on beauty purchases. The company also just began rolling out free two-day shipping to all customers in more than 20 markets.
He said Nordstrom can stand out with popular brands, superior customer service and quicker shipping in a season that can be stressful.
“The faster we can get that merchandise to the customer, the easier their life is going to be,” he said.
Across the industry, retailers hope novelty and flash will get reluctant consumers to spend more than they have been.
Target is trying to emphasize convenience and newness this year, along with value. The company’s “Wonderland” pop-ups showed off the chain’s top toys for the holiday season. Kids could scan their favorites, which got compiled into a shoppable wish list parents could print off or email to themselves.
Melissa Fleury, 27, of Brooklyn brought her one-year-old daughter and four-year-old nephew to the event. Yet so far, she said she hasn’t done much holiday shopping.
“Usually, I have half of my list done,” she said.
She said she has trimmed her budget for gifts from $1,000 last year to a maximum of $800 this year. She has kept tabs on the best sales by swapping tips with her aunt and sister. And she said she is spending slowly, deliberately and only when she spots deals.
“The price has to be right,” she said.
— CNBC’s Robert Hum contributed to this report. More

Airlines are introducing new technology and strategies to turn planes around faster as they look for ways to save on costs.
American Airlines is working to more efficiently assign gates to avoid parking delays and cut taxiing time.
A few saved minutes could mean big cost savings for a carrier.

Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on Nov. 22, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

In air travel, minutes matter.
A few moments could be the difference between making and missing a connection for passengers — and could avoid delays that ripple across the schedule for airlines. Saved time could even lead to big savings for carriers as they scramble to get a handle on costs.

Major airlines are rolling out strategies that executives say could translate to lower costs and more efficient operations, even if the time savings on paper look negligible.
Some of these tools will be put to the test during what’s expected to be a busy holiday season, a year after a meltdown that stranded thousands of passengers at the end of 2022. Many of the improvements are being made behind the scenes.
American Airlines last year started using new technology to assign flight gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport and American’s biggest hub, where it operates out of 135 regional and mainline gates.
The new procedures, replacing a near-manual hours-long process, allowed the airline to avoid many of its planes crossing from the east side to the west side of the sprawling airport, saving an average of two minutes of taxi time per flight, adding up to about 11 hours saved a day, American said.
The technology helped reduce taxi time by 20% and halved gate changes and conflicts, according to the carrier.

“It took the nightly process of gating the airline from four hours to about 10 minutes,” said American COO David Seymour.
The so-called Smart Gating program has been expanded to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and most recently, in May, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Seymour said, adding that the airline is considering using the technology in Phoenix as well.
The gating technology in other airports aims to avoid gate congestion that could delay flights from departing or parking upon arrival.
“If you try to do late-minute gate changes as planes arrive … you could get out of sync with your caterers and fuelers,” Seymour said, adding that the tools American built are tailored for each airport’s issues.
In the first eight months of the year, 76.4% of American’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival times, which the Transportation Department considers on time. That performance ranks American third among major U.S. carriers for on-time arrivals, an improvement from fifth place during the same time period last year.
Short taxi times and other improvements can help airlines save fuel, one of airlines’ biggest costs. American said its new gating program saves it 1.4 million gallons of fuel a year, equal to about $4 million based on fuel prices at major U.S. airports this month.

Faster boarding

American isn’t alone in looking to shave off a few minutes.
United Airlines last month launched a new boarding procedure for economy class, accommodating window-seat passengers first followed by the middle and then the aisle. United told staff the changes could save it up to two minutes per flight.
Southwest Airlines has also experimented this year with ways to expedite boarding, trying everything from better signage to music on the jet bridge to keep travelers moving. For years, Delta Air Lines flight attendants and gate agents have used digital messages during boarding, to send alerts for issues such as full overhead bins.
Discount carrier Frontier Airlines is aiming to speed up boarding and deplaning through pathways outside jet bridges. The company has started using stairs directly onto and off the plane, taking advantage of a second door on the carrier’s Airbus jets.
“If you want to board an airplane faster, use two [gates] instead of one,” CEO Barry Biffle said.
The Denver-based airline is in talks with several airports to increase that type of boarding, without a traditional jet bridge. Biffle estimated that the carrier could have a third of its flights using stairways for boarding and deplaning in about two years.
Biffle said that could save as much as 10 minutes off the turn time, the amount of time it takes for a plane to park, deplane, reload and depart.
Robert Mann, who has worked at several airlines and is president of aviation consulting firm RW Mann & Co., said how airlines use the time savings will be key. Baking it back into the schedule could mean airlines wouldn’t have to block off as much time for a flight, he said.
“When you actually plan shorter flight times, you have more airplanes available,” he said.
An American Airlines spokesman said that as the airline becomes more efficient, in future schedules, it could allot less time for each flight, increasing the airline’s ability to add more flights.

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