Legal action will be filed against CallPlus and Global Mode creator Bypass Network Services within the "next few days", local TV companies say.

However, Sky Television, Television New Zealand, Mediaworks and Spark subsidiary Lightbox appeared to give one more chance for their adversaries to back down in what has become a bitter dispute that could shape the future of television entertainment in New Zealand.

The TV companies originally gave a Wednesday deadline for companies to axe Global Mode, a service that helps broadband users subscribe to foreign television services that are supposed to be blocked in New Zealand for copyright reasons. But they indicated court action could still be averted if it was canned before court papers were filed next week.

"Unless the service is removed, the only other option left is to bring claims in court to shut down this unlawful service," the television companies said in a joint statement released late on Friday afternoon.

CallPlus, which owns the Slingshot, Orcon and Flip internet brands, and Bypass Network Services, have rejected the allegation Global Mode is illegal.

Global Mode is used by tens of thousands of internet users to subscribe to services such as the United States version of Netflix.

The television companies said they were "liaising with studios and content owners", which they suggested might participate in the legal action.

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* CallPlus stands firm

* Taranaki internet provider switches off Global Mode

They argue Global Mode undermines the value of exclusive New Zealand rights to programming they have paid for.

If the television companies lost what Sky Television has already admitted would be a "test case", there would be a silver lining. Companies such as Sky and Lightbox could use a defeat as ammunition in commercial negotiations with overseas film and television studios.

They could argue that rights, which would then be "exclusive" only in name, were worth less than the studios might otherwise claim.

But Lightbox chief executive Kym Niblock said it would be a court case that Lightbox would prefer to win.

"I would be more willing to pay for it and get my 'exclusivity'," she said.

Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin has said the axing of Global Mode would be a great loss that would protect "old distribution models".

READ MORE: TV companies accused of protectionism

A Whangarei man, Kim Robinson, has meanwhile filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over the television companies' legal threat.

Robinson, who is deaf, said tens of thousands of people with hearing and vision disabilities relied on services such as Global Mode to enjoy programmes that were transmitted overseas with captions for the deaf and audio descriptions for the blind.

"Sky TV, Spark, TVNZ and MediaWorks do not supply captioning or audio-descriptions with their services," he said in his letter of complaint.

"Their actions create a situation where people with disabilities have to find alternate accessible content via questionable means, such as piracy, which exposes them to risk of copyright violations," he said.

Robinson accused the TV firms of using "discriminatory practices to restrict access to legal streamed online content that allows consumers with disabilities access".