With cable or satellite TV, broadcasters send out signals and viewers receive them-you’re only able to watch what’s being broadcasted. To understand what that means, you need to know a bit about how non-IPTV works. All that means is television programming is being communicated using the internet protocol. IPTV stands for “internet protocol television.” The “IP” in IPTV is the same as the one in your IP address or VoIP (voice over IP).