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IPTV means ‘Internet protocol TV‘. “IP” in IPTV is the same as your IP or VoIP (voice over IP) address. All that means is that television programming is communicated using Internet protocol.

To understand what this means, you need to know a little more about how non-IPTV works. With cable or satellite TV, broadcasters send signals and viewers receive them. You can only watch what is being broadcast. Unless you have some sort of recording device, you can’t dictate what happens and when. You log in when you can and watch what is available.

IPTV is different. Instead of transmitting content by pulses of light through a fiber-optic cable or radio waves from a satellite, IPTV sends programs and movies through your standard Internet connection (you may use a cable or satellite Internet connection, but these are independent of the ones that usually carry your TV signals).

Instead of broadcasting a series of programs according to a specific schedule, most IPTVs use video-on-demand (VOD) or time-shifted media.

To make it all work, there is a complicated network architecture behind it all, including a lot of transcoding traditional signals into IP-compatible signals. But the important thing is that you don’t have to watch what’s being broadcast. You can tell your provider what you want to watch and they’ll send it to you immediately.

If you used a streaming service like Netflix, it’s the same idea, but with TV instead of movies or series.