SAVINGS

Cut the Cord, Cut the Cost

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

The exodus from cable toward streaming has reached its highest level.

With an average rate of $107 per month, the rates for cable and satellite TV are substantially higher than streaming platforms.

The a la carte nature of streaming appeals to many viewers. If you don’t care to watch sports, why pay for ESPN as part of a viewing package, for example?

For those who already pay for a high-speed internet connection, adding a couple streaming platforms provides a custom viewing experience more affordable. Spectrum charges $19.99 for an internet connection (with a two-year contract) for up to 300 Mbps, which is fast enough for streaming programming. Viewers can watch live TV and stream new and favorite movies, documentaries, cartoons (for the grandkids, of course) and other new content.

Streaming platforms also allows viewers to watch on any device they want, download programs to watch later without a WiFi connection, and group watch with people elsewhere. Streaming includes no-contract options, which is ideal for someone who wants to access viewing choices seasonally, such as more programming while “hibernating” during the winter but less during more active warmer months. Perhaps adding Disney+ would help during the summer while babysitting the grandchildren. Cable and satellite require contracts.

Streamed programs may or may not include advertising, but when they do, the ads are very short and infrequent. Some streaming platforms like Hulu + Live TV include broadcast television.

Streaming does bear a few disadvantages. During times of heavy internet use, views may experience occasional lag time. Internet outages also disrupt playback.

If you want to watch television via streaming, these options are much less expensive than cable or satellite: • YouTube TV: $64.99/month (100plus channels) • Hulu + Live TV: $69.99–$75.99/ month (70-plus channels, also offers on-demand movies) • Philo: $25/month (63-plus channels, also has on-demand movies) • fuboTV: $69.99–$74.99/month (111–166+ channels) • Sling TV: $35–$50/month (30–50-plus channels, also has on-demand movies)

If movies and documentaries appeal to you, consider these ondemand providers, which work like a virtual video collection. Most of these allow a certain number of simultaneous streams, where members of your household can watch something different at the same time on their devices. Some of these services rotate what is available, so movies and programs come and go: • Netflix: $10 (6,000 titles, four simultaneous streams) • HBO Max: $10 (2,000+ titles, three simultaneous streams) • Amazon Prime Video: $9 (14,000 titles, three simultaneous streams) • Disney+: $8 (50+ titles, four simultaneous streams) • Hulu: $7 (10,000+ titles, six simultaneous streams) • Apple TV+: 5 (50 titles, six simultaneous streams) • FreeVee: $0 (9,000 titles, unlimited simultaneous streams, includes ads)

Most platforms offer a free trial period to help you make up your mind.

The a la carte nature of streaming appeals to many viewers. If you don’t care to watch sports, why pay for ESPN as part of a viewing package, for example?

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Vitamin D Supplements Won’t Help Your Bones, Large Study Finds

Seniors who take vitamin D supplements to improve their bone health and ward off fractures are just wasting their time and money, a major new study has found.

These supplements did nothing to reduce their average risk of bone fractures, researchers found in a randomized trial testing vitamin D against a placebo.

“In generally healthy adults, these results do not support the use of vitamin D supplements to reduce fracture risk,” said lead researcher Meryl LeBoff, a physician who serves as chief of the calcium and bone section at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “We found that supplemental vitamin D did not reduce fractures in U.S. participants.”

In the study, published July 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine, more than 25,000 older adults were randomly assigned to take either 2,000 units of vitamin D daily or a placebo, and then followed for an average of five years. The average age of participants was 67.

Nearly 2,000 bone fractures occurred among more than 1,500 participants during the study period. However, taking vitamin D appears to have had no bearing on who suffered a fracture and who didn’t.

Nearly 20% of U.S. adults currently take vitamin D supplements, often based on blood tests that find they have “insufficient” or “deficient” levels of vitamin D.

These new results should cause both doctors and patients to question the value of routine vitamin D testing, said physician Steven Cummings, a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Doctors routinely order vitamin D levels, and many patients hear that they are low, they’re below some level,” said Cummings, co-author of an editorial accompanying the findings. “What we needed to know is whether those people who have low levels benefit from taking vitamin D. And the answer to that is no.”

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