There's a decent comparison to be made here. Local team games will always be shown free-to-air in the local markets, but for about 15 years now, the only way to receive your preferred out-of-market game would be to subscribe to what is called the "NFL Sunday Ticket" package on the DirecTV satellite programmer.
When DirecTV launched in the mid-90's they plunked down a huge sum to ensure exclusive broadcasting rights to out-of-market games. At this point in time there was really no other reason why anybody would want to switch to satellite TV, as the reception was known to cut in and out depending on the atmospheric conditions, among other reasons.
As far as I'm concerned, the "Sunday Ticket" is still the only reason anybody would switch to DirecTV, but it has definitely been a huge selling point for their services. I think it's safe to say that they have built their entire company around the fact that they alone can broadcast every game on Sunday afternoon. In 2009 they extended their deal with the NFL through 2014 for the figure of 4 Billion dollars.
One thing that DirecTV has done that undoubtedly helped their business was to offer the "Sunday Ticket" package for free when you switch over to their services from a cable company. It seems to me that Sky would be wise to entertain something similar.
