The use of Test and Measurement (T&M) in IPTV service rollouts can be divided into two broad categories: Service Assurance and Performance Analysis. Performance Analysis is concerned with analyzing a pre-operational IPTV setup in the lab or in the field. Service Assurance on the other hand is primarily concerned with assuring IPTV service quality in a live operational environment. This paper focuses on providing a pragmatic set of test and measurement guidelines that can be implemented on a live operational IPTV service for the purposes of service assurance. The audience is engineers, operations, and operations managers concerned with providing quality IPTV experience over a controlled IP Network. While, the recommendations here are generally applicable to any IPTV system, specific middleware implementations have unique requirements. Recognizing this, this paper is focused on Microsoft's IPTV Edition software platform. (MSTV) Reader familiarity with Alcatel-Lucent's triple play service delivery and Microsoft TV service architectures is assumed.