least the markets of the teams involved) had begun to steadily decrease their presence on broadcast television, and allow more of their content (including post-season coverage in many cases) to air on cable networks, and more recently, digital-only outlets. The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and national championship games in college football have also largely moved to cable (since 2016, the semi-finals of the former only air on broadcast television in odd-numbered years). A similar phenomenon has taken root in much of Canadian sport, where the Canadian Football League left broadcast television in 2008. The National Hockey League survives on Canadian broadcast television because Rogers Sportsnet, the cable broadcaster that acquired exclusive rights to the league in 2014, offers two weekly games to CBC Television for free to allow the network to continue the long-running Hockey Night in Canada. Dedicated sports channels Team-owned channels Several sports teams in the United States have their own channels, or own shares in other sports networks. For example, the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins own New England Sports Network, which retains the New England area television broadcast rights for the majority of Red Sox games (except nationally televised games). The New York Mets own SportsNet New York jointly with Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Madison Square Garden has its own network as well, MSG, where they broadcast New York Rangers, New York Knicks, New York Islanders and high school sports games, as well as original shows. Altitude airs games of all Denver-based teams owned by Kroenke Sports Enterprises. Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is a partnership between the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles. The Longhorn Network, in which ESPN owns a stake, is even more specialized, designed as an outlet for the athletic program of the University of Texas at Austin (although it has also aired football games of the UT system's San Antonio campus). Team-owned channels are also common in Europe, most notably Barça TV, Benfica TV, Galatasaray TV, Manchester United TV, Liverpool TV and Real Madrid TV. See also Sports journalism References Bibliography Broadcasting Sports events Sports journalism Sports events History of television