Tired of being ripped off by arrogant cable and satellite providers? IPTV could be your solution.

And it's cheap, comparatively.

But you need to go in with your eyes open. I've been researching this piece for the better part of a year and my experiences have ranged from being quite satisfied with the service to being quite ripped off and, therefore, quite pissed off.

Ah, the old caveat emptor! Who'd have thought?

IPTV delivers television content to you over the internet instead of through a traditional cable or satellite hookup. So, the first thing you need to remember is that, unlike cable companies that'll bundle your internet and TV content into one humongous bill (depending on your plan, of course), you need to start by ensuring you have a decent internet provider.

And good luck with that!

Once that's taken care of, your IPTV user experience – if it works as planned – is pretty much like streaming to your Roku, or FireStick, or just your smart TV. In fact, you'll need a Roku or FireStick or smart TV (there are a few other streaming options as well) to access it.

Here's what actually happens: You purchase the IPTV service from a provider (they seem to call themselves "resellers") and, once your money has made it from you to them, they'll send you info and a link to a "playlist" along with login and password information. Then you need to download an app that acts as your player.

And just as there is an abundance of IPTV providers out there (for a look at one person's take on the top IPTV dealers in Canada, follow this link, which was supposedly updated in January 2026), there is an abundance of player apps. They range from "stone knives and bearskin" quality to "Wow, where has this been all my life?" in usability and that probably translates to differences in price, too.

More on that later.

Some of the IPTV playback apps you purchase for your smart TV, Fire TV, Roku (etc.) offer recording capabilities

Another way to access IPTV is through an IPTV box or an app for your computer. Such a box can turn an old TV into a smart TV, but you can also do that my adding something like a FireStick or Roku to any old TV that has an HDMI input. I do that in my bedroom, using Roku's Streambar on an old Sony I bought when it was being blown out as clearance. And it works great!

I contacted a couple of these "box purveyors" who had emailed me (or was it just them phishing?) to try arranging a test but they all turned me down. To me, that waves a big red flag.

I do have an app for my PC, called OpenTV, and it was free. Thanks to it, I can record programs onto my computer and watch them on my TV later via my home network. Obviously, you still need the IPTV service to make it work. But it works fine. You just have to remember to shut it down when you're finished using it or it'll hang around using up one of your devices' feeds.

Some of the IPTV playback apps you purchase for your smart TV, Fire TV, Roku (etc.) offer recording capabilities, but it depends on your hardware. For example, neither my Rokus nor my Amazon Fire stick have enough internal storage space to be worthwhile for recording – though I've also seen an adapter on Amazon that will let you plug an external hard drive into your Fire and record that way. I haven't tried it, but am thinking about it since I have a one terabyte external USB hard drive sitting around doing nothing.

If it works as expected it should be able to give you PVR capability.

How much content can you expect with IPTV?

My recording needs are limited to IndyCar races and CFL games I can't watch live when the family is over, so the PC to TV via OpenTV works fine for me right now. Well, it works fine when I don't screw up the recording process: it's pretty straightforward but if you don't tell the app specifically how you want to deal with the recording it won't do it properly.

It's like having a kid!

And that's why I'm thinking of adding the external drive to my Amazon Fire.

How much content can you expect with IPTV?

Here's what you can expect from the average IPTV provider, though they do vary a bit one from another (I took this from the website of a typical IPTV provider):

• + 55,000 live channels
• + 180,000 films and series
• +500 Canadian Channels
• 4K, UHD, FHD, HD, HD, channels
• Compatible with all devices
• NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB,Dazn...
• Adult channels
• Television Programme Guide (EPG)

This seems pretty consistent across the providers I've seen. One reason for this, according to the folks at IPTV.ca, which is the best of the providers I've tried so far, is that the industry includes a large number of resellers, who typically offer access to a gigantic IPTV library that's located somewhere central and which the providers tap into, while each individual provider handles their own things such as customer support, billing, and account management.

This use of a central source means that a lot of the services' content is pretty much the same, though as noted by the folks at IPTV.ca (and from my own experience) they can be very different when it comes to support quality, account management, stability policies and how issues are handled.

Why have I been "sleeping around" with a variety of providers?

Much of the industry also relies on shared technologies and something they call "middleware" (Electronic Program Guides, apps, streaming formats, etc.), but even here a service's reliability can vary significantly depending on what's happening at their end when it comes to such things as server capacity, redundancy, bandwidth management, and operational practices.

I can attest to this. I've signed up with at least three different services since I started pursuing this topic and while their services are extremely similar, their performance and customer service is all over the map.

Why have I been "sleeping around" with a variety of providers? Because most of the ones I've dealt with have serious issues when it comes to performance and/or service. It's all well and good to offer such a cornucopia of content, but it becomes moot if all the service does is buffer and lag and buffer and lag, and when you try to complain, they don't seem interested in getting back to you once they have your money.

I had this experience with DigitalLizard (I'm not going to link the providers with whom I had issues). After my free trial period (most providers offer such a service, but they're usually very short – sometimes only 12 hours), I signed up and enjoyed the service at first. I didn't renew, however, because of streaming issues and a lack of after-sales support.

Much better was Hillox, which I actually re-upped after my six-month contract ran out, despite lagging issues. Alas, I gave them $100 for a one-year renewal and after a month they seemed to just disappear. Many emails and other attempts at contact went unanswered.

Caveat emptor, indeed!

In my next column, I'll expand on this topic and outline some more of my experiences at cutting the cord with IPTV.