In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households.....

Future
In the past, this technology has been restricted by low broadband penetration and by the relatively high cost of installing wiring capable of transporting IPTV content reliably in the customer's home. In the coming years, however, residential IPTV is expected to grow at a brisk pace as broadband was available to more than 200 million households worldwide in the year 2005, projected to grow to 400 million by the year 2010. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity from their existing markets and as a defensive measure against encroachment from more conventional Cable Television services.

Also, there is a growing number of IPTV installations within schools, universities, corporations and local institutions.


IPTV Regulation
Historically Broadcast TV has been regulated differently than Telecom and Internet. As IPTV allows TV and VOD to be transmitted over IP networks new regulatory issues arise.[8] Professor Eli M. Noam, highlights in his report " TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation?" some of the key challenges with sector specific regulation that is becoming obsolete due to convergence in this field. To find out more about the issues go to the Canadian Regulator and check out the report


Definition
It is important to note that historically there have been many different definitions of "IPTV" including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems. Although (in Mid 2007) it is premature to say that there is a full consensus of exactly what IPTV should mean, there is no doubt that the most widely used definition today is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "Final Mile" to the consumer's premises.[citation needed] This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service, and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.

The official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is as follows:
"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."