A technical fault on the SKY TV Network saw some viewers cop an x-rated eye-full instead of a scheduled rugby game on Sunday afternoon.
The network has been forced to apologise after nearly four minutes of pornography screened during what should have been family viewing.
Twelve-year-old Jared Watts switched on the TV for some Sunday sport on Prime, and caught some off-field action of a very different kind.
It was not rugby that was on but the Spice porn channel.
"(I was) horrified! It is not the sort of thing I want my 12-year-old to see on TV," says Lorraine Watts, Jared's mother. "It was a full blown sex scene - male and female right in the middle of their little to do and that was full on."
The Watts did not hang around to see how long the explicit saga went on for.
SKY, who is responsible for the unscheduled viewing, timed the scenes out at about three minutes and fifty seconds worth, of what Loraine regards as hard core pornography.
The explicit images were beamed to some customers in what the network describes as its Auckland and North district.
SKY says the mishap was caused by a systems distribution fault, and that it was only those watching through the network's SKY's digital platform that would have seen the material.
The network is taking steps to make sure it does not happen again, and apologises for any offence caused.
Meanwhile, the Watts intend to make a formal complaint.
