Do you need cable, a dish or a TV provider to use IPTV?

What do you actually need for IPTV?

You need three things, and none of them is a cable package or a dish:

1. Home internet from any Canadian provider.
2. A device with an IPTV app, such as a Smart TV, a Fire TV Stick, an Android TV box, a phone or a computer.
3. An IPTV subscription, which gives you the login you type into the app.

Here is what you can leave out:

• A cable TV package or a rented cable box
• A satellite dish, a receiver or a clear view of the southern sky
• An antenna, unless you also want free local channels over the air
• A technician visit or a long contract

With IPTV Nord, for example, you order online, pay by Interac e-Transfer and get your login by email, on whatever internet you already have. The installation guides show the setup for each device, which takes about 10 minutes.

Does IPTV come through the cable?

Only if your internet does. If your internet provider is a cable company, such as Rogers, Vidéotron, Cogeco or Eastlink, the data reaches your modem over the same coaxial wire that used to carry cable TV. But IPTV travels on that wire as ordinary internet data, not as cable channels, so you can cancel the TV part and keep internet only. On fibre from Bell or TELUS, the same data arrives on a glass fibre line instead.

A dish works the same way. Satellite TV needs a dish, but IPTV does not. Satellite internet can carry IPTV, though many satellite plans have a monthly data limit, and live TV uses a lot of data. See how much data IPTV uses before you try it on a capped plan.

Is your IPTV provider the same as your internet provider?

Usually not. Your internet provider brings data to your home, and your IPTV provider sells the channels you watch over it. You can mix them freely: an independent IPTV service works on Bell, Rogers, TELUS or any other internet connection.

The exception is TV sold by the internet company itself. Bell Fibe TV and TELUS Optik TV are IPTV services built to run on their own networks, so you can only get them where that company's line reaches your home. If you want to compare those with cable and independent IPTV, read whether IPTV is better than cable.

Does an IPTV box work without internet?

No. An IPTV box or app needs a live internet connection for every channel it plays. When the internet drops, the box still turns on and the menus open, but the channels stop until the connection returns.

Plan for about 10 Mbps for each screen watching in Full HD and 25 Mbps for each screen in 4K, and more important than speed, a steady connection in the evening. A TV plugged into the router with an Ethernet cable is more stable than one on weak Wi-Fi. If your connection is slower than that, read which IPTV works best on slow internet.