What is IPTV and is it the Answer to Having Too Many Streaming Services?

Cable TV is expensive these days, with the average cable package costing between $80 and $120 a month. Over the last decade or so, people have gotten tired of paying for cable. They’re realizing that they’re paying around a hundred dollars a month just to watch a certain network or show, which is why IPTV has become so popular in recent years.

IPTV, otherwise known as Internet Protocol Television, allows its users to stream TV channels and their respective content over the internet. The concept has become increasingly popular in recent years as people have started to jump onto the “cut the cord” movement. Which advocates for abandoning cable for something simpler and more cost effective. However, as more companies have created their own streaming services such as HiDive, Netflix, and VRV, people are feeling overwhelmed when it comes to the amount of content that they have on offer.

In this article, we will answer the questions: What is IPTV? How does IPTV work? And whether or not IPTV is the answer to having too many streaming services.

What is IPTV?

If you’ve been looking to cut the cord recently, you might have asked yourself “What is IPTV?”

IPTV is a recent technological innovation that allows people to watch TV channels and their content on the internet by streaming content from the servers of the content owner directly to the device the viewer is using.

A good example of this would be a service like Sling TV that allows for users to select the channels they’d like to watch, just as if they were using cable TV. One of the big differences between cable and IPTV are that satellite dishes are not needed to be attached to the viewer’s home for them to view content,

IPTV also has an advantage in terms of being flexible. With cable, you can only use your service at home because your cable package has been installed directly in your house, you don’t have the ability to use it remotely. With a streaming service, you can use your services from anywhere in the world so long as there is an internet connection. You also have direct control over what content you consume, because you can choose what you watch. Compared to cable where programming listings are chosen in advance and audiences have no say in what airs when, streaming with IPTV can be a very attractive option, especially for people that live busy lives.

How does IPTV work?

IPTV works by streaming content from the servers of the content owner or host to the device or devices the viewer is trying to watch. The content is typically put in a compressed form to make streaming easier because of date restrictions and file sizes, and also to accommodate slower internet connections. When the viewer selects what content they’d like to consume, the content is then outputted to the user’s device in a format that matches the output resolution of that device, this process is called transcoding.

Transcoding

In short, transcoding takes a file that is of a certain type and resolution, and transforms it to match whatever device it is going to be displayed on. So a low resolution video can be transformed into a higher resolution video almost immediately.

What is an IPTV box?

To use IPTV, viewers need some sort of device that’s compatible with the streaming service they’re trying to access, a streaming device like a Roku, a Fire Stick or a set top box in general. Users will also need a stable internet connection for streaming content. They can be similar to the set top boxes given out by cable TV providers, but they’re designed for accessing streaming content instead of cable packages.

IPTV boxes typically have dozens of apps available to download and install on them, if they didn’t already come preinstalled from the factory. The wide range of apps allows for users to have a wide variety of content available to them.

One of the biggest benefits of using an IPTV box is that they’re far cheaper than a cable TV service, and you actually own the hardware, compared to a cable company that still owns the set top box that they gave you when you signed up for their service.

Is IPTV the answer to having too many streaming services?

The answer to this question is: Maybe. Streaming is certainly a viable alternative to cable and satellite TV, that can offer a much more affordable way to enjoy the content that viewers love. For instance, instead of having to buy a hundred dollar cable package that includes HBO, an IPTV user can buy a Roku, or a Fire Stick and sign up for HBO Max for $15.99 a month and save money. Cable can be overwhelming because there are so many options for content and it can be so expensive, but IPTV can easily solve that problem by allowing the end user to choose the content they like and not pay for anything else.

However, with choice can also come consequences. With there being so many streaming services available today, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus, Hulu, and many, many others, someone that wants to watch everything can find themselves paying just as much every month, if not more than they would be if they were paying for a cable subscription. So IPTV can easily be an answer to having too many streaming services, but it can also be just as bad for your wallet, if not worse than a cable package.

Legal Concerns:

IPTV as a whole is legal, but the problem is that in recent years there have been some individuals who have started their own IPTV services, offering the same content that’s available on popular streaming services and cable or satellite networks for drastically reduced prices.

These individuals are procuring the content and offering it to consumers illegally because they do not have the license to distribute or share the content that they’re offering to others. So before signing up for a service that isn’t a widely known and recognized brand, we would recommend doing some research on it, because accessing copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright holder can land a viewer in hot water legally or with their internet service provider.

Final Thoughts:

Growing up in the early 2000s as I did, you’d have never believed that cable could be dethroned, but twenty-some years later, the world has changed. Cable is still a thing, and it’s still popular, but its subscriber counts are dwindling. Gone are the days when you needed a DirecTV subscription to watch Game of Thrones. You can watch just about anything with a tiny little box that plugs into the HDMI port on the back of your TV, and you can save lots of money by doing so. IPTV services may not be for everyone, but for the people that decide to use them, there is a lot of benefit to doing so.