Is there a Villages Cord Cutters Club?
 

Does anyone have any information regarding this topic? I thought there was a person or club here in the Villages where they would give people who were interested factual information on the topic?

The reason why I'm interested is because as people move to the Villages, we are seeing a different generation of individuals who already stream and only need internet service vs a cable box system. But there are still many who come from a generation of cable TV with cable boxes, want to reduce their monthy bill and need help understanding what streaming is and how to make the transition if they want to.

You will always need internet service. Check around for the best deal. We go rid of the Cable TV part but still wanted to get network channels (ABC NBC CBS etc). That is were it will get more expensive. YouTube TV is your best choice but after the specials expire it will cost you $90 tax incl a month. That said it is great service and unlimited DVR recording. If you have a Smart TV you need nothing else or you can use a Roku device or Fire Stick. You can run YouTube TV on all your TV sets at no extra charge. If you don’t care about the major Networks there are lost of choices that are free or very low cost. Bottom like is that cord cutting will save you some money but not a ton of money.

There's nothing complicated about it.

"Cable" or "Internet Providers" provide the access, other sources provide "content".

Picture it as a company puts a 8" conduit under your land and you pay for that and you get to put as many "wires" through it, as you want. Internet provides the "conduit" (you pay for it), then you pay for whatever other wires (content) you want or need.

The only thing that changes from your previous "cable provider", is your content comes over the Internet, instead of a physical cable.

Various providers offer "packages", just like your old Cable company did. YouTube, Hulu, Sling, Peacock, Amazon Prime, Netflx.

Agree that there is a lot of information out there. Club for this? Don't think so.

Like everything else in our world technology is taking over. Have 3 vehicles and one has a transmission shifter on the steering wheel stalk, another has the old style automatic floor shifter and the 3rd vehicle has a push button shifter.

Bet today that the younger/tech savvy people will give you too many choices and that can change next week.

Not that complicated, even a caveman can do it. Ask your kids or grandchildren.

Exactly, ask the grandkids. We only have internet service. The grandkids explained apps we can add to our smart TV or phone. Tubi, a free app, provides us with free fox news.
The app also has hundreds of movies and older TV shows to choose from.

We pay $4.99 for the CBS (Paramount) app. This is primarily for a second source of daily news. Much needed during hurricane season.

We downloaded the ABC and NBC apps plus a few others. We do not pay for these. The current shows on these apps are free a few days after original airing. We usually are not home to watch much TV. We do not mind the wait.

I aways had a television antenna from the time I got my first home. I also only use FREE streaming.

You should be able to do a search on here to find most of your answers as I know it’s been discussed vs. needing a club. Many seem to like YouTube tv. The best way to learn is to take the cable box back and go explore. Do you have a smart phone? It’s the same concept only a larger version of it. You will need a smart tv or if you don’t have one then a simple fire stick or Roku.

The internet is full of factual information. If no club use the internet. It’s easy, if you do need help there are “tech guys” you can hire.

Cutting the cord is easy. Simply drop the cable service.

Then get internet only from a provider. Now stream content, research your options for the type of programming you desire.
Depending on the apps installed on your TV you may need a device such a Firestick & ROKU.

Just one website. There’s others, including some excellent YouTube videos. No club needed.

Cut the cord: Your guide to canceling cable and streaming TV online | Tom's Guide

Just me

Cable vs streaming
 

I agree with all the replies. Just beware that if you lose your internet service you will also lose your tv viewing. Be sure to have enough mbps or the streaming will buffer.

Exactly..
 

Really, it is not complicated.
1) Get " basic internet only" from your lowest cost provider of your choice.
2) Add a ROKU stick or Fire stick or ONN stick etc to an HDMI port of your TV. (OR, if you have a smart TV, use your Smart TV Apps if you prefer; your choice.)
3) Select "Apps" to install on the "Stick"; many are preinstalled, many have free content. Many provide Network Tv content; some are also free.
Subscribe to fee based Content only if you need to. Favorites seem to be Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu, Sling, literally hundreds available.

I don’t know if there is a club, but you can search this forum for more information. We had John’s Antennas in Ocala install and aim our antenna. We are in Linden and reception is great. Some of the fancy channels are missing, so we can stream utube, Hulu, peacock if we want. You tube allows you to pause your account btw. We use that frequently.
The downside of the antenna is we may need to re-aim it after extremely high winds. Also, there may be changes in ota signals in the near future. Give John a call if you are antenna oriented. He can fill you in, and installs good equipment for a reasonable price.

Ota!

I’ve been streaming content over 20 years. I stream content to my cars so I don’t need Sirius/xm.
A couple of points:
1) it’s a fallacy o think you can save money by streaming. You need internet whether you stream or not so forget about those costs. Any streaming service costs is over and above your internet costs.

2) it’s also a fallacy that a single streaming service will provide you with all the content you will need.

3) watch out for certain services if they are legal. Some of these you better be using vpn so your tv ip addresses cannot be tracked.

Every year for over a dozen years, I compare most streaming services to what I currently use. And to this date, I would be spending more money and get less functionality compared to what I have today, what I’ve had for decades. I can be anywhere in the world (if have done this for over a decade) and watch live tv or watch anything that I’ve recorded on my Terabytes of storage.

Before cutting the cable tv service, you need to sit down and come up with a list of all the channels your shows come on. My wife and I have a long list and it takes multiple streaming services to get what we want. I think it took 4 or 5 providers to get all the channels we like to watch. When you add all these costs up, it was more than our current service. For a couple decades I have negotiated a monthly cost for my tv channels. A couple years ago, we did switch to these 4 or 5 providers to get everything we watch and it cost more and it was a mess. We use Apple TV 4K boxes so every provider had an app so it’s easy to get to each provider and Apple TV devices have more smarts in them compared to your Roku or fire sticks. YouTube tv doesn’t provide everything but it’s a good start. So if you want to watch a different channel, you had to get out of the YouTube app and then get into say Hulu or shudder or paramount+ or Apple TV and others. Then you have to remember that this show is only on Hulu or it’s only on something else.
Then, the recording functionality of some of these providers don’t exist. Right now, I can record 15 different shows at the same time to a number of hard drives, a lot of the providers don’t provide recording and don’t buy off that you can always get to a show/concert because it’s online, because that’s also a fallacy. So after using many streaming providers for almost a year, we went back to our provider we used for ma y decades. I still have some streaming services because they are free from our cell phone provider, but overall, it’s a much simpler environment to use daily.

There is always an option to go with iptv to get thousands of channels for the cheap. If you do, you better use a vpn service for every tv or you could get a surprise knock on your door.