The Rugby World Cup has highlighted a need for New Zealand to up its game, when it comes to captioning.

Captioning allows deaf viewers to follow commentary through text on the screen.

Thousands of Kiwis are missing out on the action, because the service isn't available here.

Full captioning is available overseas.

New Zealand Captioning Working Group chairperson, Louise Carroll, said Sky provides captioning on 17 of its channels from overseas, here.

However, "it's not providing new captioning for activities as they are occurring. It's a very small amount on the 17 channels, so we're missing out."

Louise Carroll thinks it's not fair.

"It's nothing new, but the Rugby World Cup has shown the impact of excluding and marginalising a whole group of citizens."