Half of Homes to Have DVR by 2016 | Cablevision Expands Free HD Programs Published on January 28, 2011

The number of U.S. homes with a DVR should pass the halfway mark and reach 50% of all TV homes or about 61.8 million households by the end of 2016, up from 32% or 37.9 million at the end of the third quarter of 2010, according to revised projections from Magna Global. The firm is also predicting that the homes with VOD, a category that includes both traditional multichannel VOD offerings and over the top services, will hit 70.1 million homes, about 57% of all TV homes at the end of 2016. That is up from 51.1 million homes with VOD or about 44% of all TV homes at the end of the third quarter of 2010, reports broadcastingcable.com.

The TruTV show Operation Repo wants 500,000 likes on Facebook, so it’s issuing a challenge to its fans: hit the number by the end of the season in April, and they’ll produce an bonus episode just for Facebook. It’s not the first time a cable show has rewarded its Facebook fans, reports LostRemote.com, Nick debuted a Spongebob episode on its Facebook page this week, beginning at 8 p.m. ET, a day ahead of the television episode on Nick.

Cablevision System has added Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus to its free lineup of HD service. The New York metro area’s predominant cable operator said it is automatically directing HD set-top boxes to the HD feeds of the complementary channels, when available. For CableCARD customers, the HD channel position for Fox Soccer Channel is 797; Fox Soccer Plus is available on 798. All told, Cablevision counts over 100 free HD channels, writes multichannel.com.