Is IPTV worth it depends almost entirely on what you want it to replace. If your current setup is a basic cable bundle you're only watching for a handful of channels, internet-delivered TV can cut the bill dramatically and add device flexibility you'd never get from a set-top box. If you're chasing every regional sports network and the full premium-movie catalogue, you'll find the picture more mixed.
The technology itself isn't exotic. IPTV is just television delivered over an IP network rather than through coaxial cable, satellite, or over-the-air broadcast, and the format covers scheduled channels as well as on-demand libraries. The Wikipedia entry on IPTV walks through the three delivery flavours — live, time-shifted, and video on demand — and notes that most consumer "IPTV" services in practice are over-the-top (OTT) video running over the public internet, which is why your home upload and download speeds matter more than the marketing does.
Where the question of "is IPTV worth it" gets thorny is on the legal and reliability side. Licensed OTT services from broadcasters and major platforms (think the apps your TV already has, plus legitimate live-TV streaming bundles) run on the same infrastructure but pay for the rights, so the channel list is stable and the streams don't vanish mid-match. Grey-market and unauthorised resellers advertise massive channel counts at a fraction of that price, but they get shut down or rotated constantly; the savings evaporate the moment you have to chase a new playlist, and you're also accepting a service with no privacy, no refunds, and no recourse when something breaks. A good rule of thumb: if the price looks too good to be true relative to what rights-holders charge, the channel list is the part that's at risk, not the price.
So is IPTV worth it for you personally? I'd say yes if you (a) want a smaller monthly bill than cable, (b) mainly watch a predictable set of national and international news and entertainment channels, and (c) are happy sticking with licensed apps and platforms. It's a more qualified yes if you need a long tail of niche regional sports or specific PPV events — those are exactly the rights that licensed OTT services restrict, and they're where unauthorised resellers become tempting. And it's an easy no if the only appeal is the headline channel count; that number is almost always the part of the offer that won't survive the month.
For a deeper comparison of the licensed and licensed-adjacent options side by side, this rundown of IPTV providers is one of the more balanced ones I've come across lately. The short version: the legal ceiling and the floor cost more, but you actually keep what you pay for.