The Sky is Falling (TV Version)

2008 has barely established itself, and here comes Doomsday. eMarketer has what I am sure will be only the first of many articles pointing out that we now have barely a year until February 17, 2009, The Day the Music Died Analog TV Will Die. The article says there are websites already running countdown clocks until the day when TV stations must switch over exclusively to digital signals, meaning your old analog TV set won't work any more. Mostly. Somewhat. If you're watching over-the-air television, anyway.

According to the article, the government can't get its act together (surprise!) and there hasn't been enough consumer outreach and planning going on, and only about a third of US households seem to know that the transition is coming, and FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps warns us "The hour is late - very late."

Okay. We've been warned. We were warned about the dangers of the calendar switchover in 2000 - everybody remember Y2K fondly? - and we are being duly warned about this. So noted. Expect to hear more about it over the next 13 months. A lot more.