The term IP stands for Internet Protocol, hence, the IPTV UK full form is Internet Protocol Television. Therefore, when someone mentions IPTV to you, it simply means a TV that can operate with the help of the internet. Naturally, you will need to have a fast broadband connection to ensure that your IPTV is operating properly. IPTV is quite different from the normal TVs that you can get from the stores. It sets itself aside from the traditional satellite TV or cable TV that you have come across while growing up. By providing a constant streaming service, IPTV has created a new genre of TV all by itself. Therefore, everything that you see is either happening live or on demand. You could say there are a lot of similarities between IPTV and YouTube or Netflix. However, at the same time, there are differences between the two which helps in clearer differentiation.

Instead of having a dedicated server on-premises, there is an option to deploy an IPTV solution in a cloud. It is possible to have simply an uplink switch connected to a local network to provide IPTV services with the same quality as if they were provided from local servers. Cloud infrastructure is even more preferred since it is easier to virtualize and replicate the entire solutions across different data centres and make sure that the unavailability of one site with virtual IPTV servers will not lead to entire system downtime and profit loss as a consequence.

The best practical advantage of a cloud installation is that newcomers can start an IPTV business with little investment and pay as they grow. For example, a hotel could simply purchase Smart TV sets, install an Ethernet network or use existing and subscribe for cloud-based IPTV service delivered to the hotel over the Internet. Guests will not notice any difference as long as an uplink to the cloud and hotel LAN are available and are working without speed flaps. Despite requiring additional investments, using set-top boxes is still preferred even for cloud-based solutions to ease up forthcoming upgrades and achieve better content delivery.