Since 1990 Sky Sports has provided New Zealanders with live subscriber sports action and the range of sports covered includes rugby, cricket, rugby league, basketball and golf. Sky Sports operates Sky Sports 1 for live coverage of major events and live sports talk shows, while Sky Sports 2 offers delayed coverage of sports events and a choice when conflict arises between sports events. Sky Sports 3 also broadcasts when a third live sports alternative arises.

Sky Sports line-up of programs includes the evening sports news show Sports 365, the long-running rugby analysis show Reunion and rugby league review show Vodafone NRL Full-Time.

New Zealand's passion for the national game of rugby is represented by Sky Television's 24-hour Rugby Channel. The channel features live coverage of domestic NPC, international Super 12 and international test rugby from home and abroad.

The channel has exclusive rights to the Six Nations in Europe, provides a variety of rugby talk shows from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and provides extensive coverage of rugby history with use of rugby archives.