Professional sport would not exist without Sky Television. But would Sky exist without professional sport? Would anyone pay more than $20 a week to watch the E channel or reruns of 20-year-old M*A*S*H episodes?
Sky is now the king of sport in this country. Pay television has changed everything: there is more professional sport, games are played when the TV chiefs want them to be played, and players who years ago received petrol money and the occasional meat pack can now make a living from sport.
If you want to watch any sport now, you have to have a big dish on your roof. With the exception of some motorsport, the America's Cup and a few triathlons, all sport is broadcast on Sky.
It has the rugby, the league, the cricket, the netball, the tennis, the golf, English football, the lot.
It even has darts beamed in live from some boozy theatre in England.
Richard Last, Sky's director of sport content, said Sky had been around for about 20 years, but when rugby went professional in 1995 was when the organisation really started to grow.
Seventeen years later, there are channels catering to art lovers and movie fans and war buffs and those who just have to know the latest Kardashian news, but sport remains a major selling point.
"We do find now that people sign up for a broad variety of different reasons. But sport is still very, very important to us," Last said.
"We have three sport channels and we want to have quality sport on them all the time."
Live sport was an important tool, he said.
"As people get more and more busy they want to watch their sport live. They won't record it and then watch it at a later time.
We do get better numbers from live sport, so that is what we try and deliver."
But why play rugby games in the middle of winter at night, and football matches which kick off at 5.30pm?
"It comes down to value. What would be the value of sport if we broadcast it at 10 in the morning? A lot of viewers will sit down and want to watch something at night.
"We do not tell sports when to play their sport and fix the draw ... but more people are available to participate from their living room at night.
"New Zealand is great at producing fantastic athletes but the biggest market for them is overseas. Sports bodies here are caught between a rock and a hard place. They have got to generate as much money as they can and the best way to do that is have the games on at a time where the most people can see them.
"Every sport around the world is played at night so they can generate the money."
Blackouts were often used in the United States, where television coverage was not available in the city of the game until the ground was sold out.
But it has never been tried in New Zealand and Last doubted it would be.
"That train has left the station. You'd probably get just as much negativity about that [blackouts] than having it on television.
"Would not having it on television necessarily make for full stadiums? If people are dedicated fans they will go along."
In essence, subscribers help pay for the product, though Last said a good crowd at a game always added value to the broadcast.
Every rugby game in the ITM Cup was covered and he said there was a firm commitment by Sky to continue do this, even as it evolved into more of a semi-professional competition.
"We are actually looking at doing more rugby this year, with more college games, which have been very popular.
"A game involving a team like Manawatu has interest from people not just in Manawatu but all over the place. We were really pleased with the ratings we got last year for the games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for the ITM Cup."
It was a big undertaking for Sky to broadcast games - it has more than 70 people working at a cricket test, and more than 30 cameras at a rugby test - and millions of dollars was involved.
He declined to say how much Sky paid for broadcast rights, although it was obviously a large amount.
Sanzar signed a $US437 million deal in 2010 with television companies for coverage from 2011-15, though how much Sky contributed to that was never revealed.
Last year, Sky reported a $172 million operating profit, and it is installed in just under 50% of New Zealand households.
"The thing about sitting down and watching sport in your own home is that it is easy. People are looking for easy things to do."
If Sky was not around, someone else would have come to the party.
"Somebody would have created professional sport in this country."
Former TVNZ sports commentator John McBeth said Sky had become dominant as there had been little protest about sport going to pay television.
"New Zealanders have pretty much accepted the fact that if you want to watch top-grade sport you have to have Sky TV," McBeth said.
"Sometimes you hear a member of the Opposition making some noises about getting sport back on to free-to-air television, but nothing really comes of it.
"If Sky did not exist, then many sports would simply not exist either, as they do now. Netball went from a sport of amateurs to being paid and allowing the sport to build depth and get players better and faster."
Delayed rugby tests were aired in the 1970s but soon went to live coverage.
"Blackouts have never really been tried in this country. The coverage is so very, very good today, miles ahead of where it was 10 or 20 years ago. There is certainly a merit in staying home and watching on the television."
Sky TV
The figures
• Nearly 50% of New Zealand households subscribe
• Reported $172 million operating profit last year
• Part of $US437 million deal signed to cover Sanzar rugby from 2011-15
