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We had no idea that next February's analog-to-digital TV conversion was shaping up as the Y2K of contemporary broadcasting, but a careful reconsideration of the facts offers alarming new perspective on a crisis in the making. To wit: Your grandparents may miss the Academy Awards. Or so reports Variety, which points to the Feb. 17 changeover, the Feb. 22 Oscarcast and a constituency of none-the-wiser viewers as the makings of a perfect storm threatening to wash away the Oscars as we know them:

With the ceremony coming so soon after broadcasters switch off their analog signals, it’s possible that at least some viewers — who perhaps only tune in for big events like the Oscars — will discover they can’t watch the show. Others may miss the Oscars through sheer procrastination and inertia, after failing to replace their set, order cable or hook up a converter box in time. That’s why, insiders confirm, the Alphabet web had been hoping to move the Academy Awards back into March, even though the awards season has been moving earlier and earlier in recent years. [...] Nielsen Media Research has already moved next February’s sweeps period to March in order to give stations time to iron out any digital transition problems.

Obviously, this is the last thing Hollywood needs. Burned a year ago by the equally inflexible WGA strike, the Golden Globes have already moved up to Jan. 11, 2009 — its earliest broadcast ever — but Academy sources suspect the awards potential of blockbusters including The Dark Knight and Iron Man will motivate the 18 remaining analog-loyalist Oscar fans against such "procrastination and inertia." Worst-case scenario, there's always Oscar's Future Stars of 1988 for the especially old-school who probably wouldn't know the difference anyway; a precocious Heath Ledger is probably featured in there somewhere.