Karl Puschmann ditched the cricket to login to Netflix for the first time. But it wasn't the slam dunk he was hoping for.

Is it fair big companies extract hundreds of millions of dollars of profit each year from the economy, yet contribute little or nothing to fund a civil society?

In little over a fortnight video-on-demand giant Netflix sets up shop in New Zealand. Its arrival is likely to leave many television fans struggling with time management problems, not to mention how they'll pay for it all and any extra broadband usage.

Netflix is expected to launch in the next few days bringing NZ more directly into the corporate world of global pay television.