DISH Network has apparently started selling IPTV services so now you can subscribe to DISH...um...without a dish!   They're selling the box for $99 and it's also available on a rental basis.  Currently the only subscriptions they're offering are packages made up of their international channels in Hindu, Urdu, and Arabic.  As DISH has always had one of the best selections of international channels, hopefully they will roll out further selections soon. Personally, I'm hoping to be able to subscribe to their Brazilian channels as my current carrier, AT&T U-Verse doesn't offer any.

IPTV (or TV delivered over Internet Protocol) has become one of the ways carriers deliver television programming.  Providers such as AT&T with their U-Verse offering and Verizon with their FiOS service deliver a consumer service similar to cable TV services, but over an IP connection.  Often these services are bundled with high-speed broadband internet.   Neither of these companies makes their offering available via third-party internet providers connections.

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DISH Network appears to be be the first major provider in the US offering a service that is solely designed to be delivered over internet connections provided by third parties.   Where internet connections are provided by cable companies, IPTV providers (such as AT&T or Verizon), or even other satellite companies, DISH will be directly competing with their television offerings and using their bandwidth to deliver the service.

There are a number of IPTV set-top boxes such as Apple TV, Roku, Boxee, Xbox, FyreTV (an IPTV-based adult movie service) and even many so-called "connected" or "smart" TV's and Blue-Ray players in the market. These boxes mainly stream stored content such a movies and past episodes of various TV programs.  Content providers such as Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, and Hulu provide libraries accessible through these boxes.  Cable TV/IPTV providers often "give away" stored content in the form of "free" or "cheap" video on demand (VOD) services, either in the form of carrier-based services, or set-top boxes that include digital video recorders (DVR).   Pay per view (PPV) is another stored content service.  These boxes compete both with VOD and PPV services.

What makes the DISH Network offering most interesting is that it has the potential to be the first service from a major provider that brings in alternative live television programming.  While currently their offering is limited to a few select international packages, the potential exists for them to provide any or all of their channels paving the way for the future of television, where instead of buying all of our channels (content) in a package from a single cable company or IPTV provider, we'll buy a la carte, paying individual content providers for the stations we really want to watch.