According to a recent poll by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), the people most affected by the switch over are the ones least likely to realize it's on the horizon. Anyone who has opted out of the cable box or dish world in favor of those darling little bunny ears are going to have a big surprise come February 17, 2009.

"A lot of people don't realize that we are making this switch because of an order from the FCC," Theressa Davis, a spokesperson for Comcast, said.

Comcast took some flack a few months ago when it moved its MSNBC news channel up the dial and subsequently off basic cable.

Davis said the move was a baby step toward grouping all "like" programming together in the upper ends of the digital broadcast width. Comcast and other broadcasting companies are doing this to prepare for the day when analogue goes dark.

CTAM estimates that one-fifth of American households (more than 19 million homes) are cable free and rely on antennas for their television reception. This means that those potential consumers will either become new cable customers or they will turn to the Internet and DVDs.

Some estimates place the number of online users who watch television and PC screens simultaneously at 40 percent, and an increasing number of consumers watch television and movies through their online providers.

The federal government has created a fund to subsidize digital receivers, but the easiest (not cheapest) way for most consumers to remain plugged in to their favorite shows is to sign up with a cable company.