to protect the team's ticket sales, the package was largely limited to away games. The telecasts also had to be scheduled around CBS network programming that could not be pre-empted, such as 60 Minutes. In the 1990s, the team split its home games between broadcast television (with KGW serving as flagship station by 2000) and a pay-per-view service known as BlazerVision; the team did not disclose how many viewers subscribed to the service, while Portland Business Journal writer Andy Giegerich criticized the service when it was assigned early-round playoff games in the 1999–2000 season (thus resulting in blackouts of TNT's national coverage), and anecdotally noted that the Trail Blazers lost more often in games that were on BlazerVision or otherwise untelevised. The service was discontinued for the 2000–01 season, with the Trail Blazers replacing it with games syndicated to cable providers. In the 2001–02 season, the team established its own regional sports network, Action Sports Cable Network (ASCN), which would carry the majority of Trail Blazers telecasts. AT&T Broadband refused to add the new channel due to the carriage fees it charged, which prevented it from reaching a wide audience. After having to resort to providing closed circuit feeds directly to bars, and sublicensing a package of games to the local PAX TV station, ASCN folded after one season. The team reached agreements with FSN Northwest (now Root Sports Northwest) and KGW to carry its regional broadcasts. It was alleged that the 2005 departure of Steve Jones from the commentary team was due in part to team displeasure with Jones' sometimes frank analysis of the team's on-court performance and off-court decisions. In the 2007–08 season, the team moved to Comcast SportsNet Northwest (now NBC Sports Northwest); all but six regular-season games were carried on CSN Northwest or the Blazers Television Network (a syndication package within the team's television market, whose flagship was KGW); 34 games were produced and broadcast in high-definition. The team's television contract with CSN Northwest was criticized due to the channel's lack of carriage on satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network, both of which compete with Comcast's cable television operations. On July 6, 2016, the team renewed its contract with CSN Northwest through the 2020–2021 season, giving the network exclusive rights to all Trail Blazers games beginning in the 2017–18 season (and thus ending the team's over-the-air syndication package). The team had originally considered an arrangement