Jeff Zucker, head of NBC Universal, was famously quoted earlier this year warning that the media industry had to work so “that we do not end up trading analog dollars for digital pennies.” It’s a great line and an even better observation. But I think it’s inevitable and it’s going to happen no matter how hard they try to avoid it. Analog and digital, it turns out, are polar opposites. Analog has physical costs which lead to scarcity-driven business models. Digital has zero marginal cost (or near zero), which leads to ubiquity-driven business models.

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When I was reporting from CES in Las Vegas last January, one of the more interesting technology experiences I had was away from the show floor, back in my hotel room. After a long night and little sleep, I decided to watch a little television; apparently this is common in Vegas, as my budget hotel considered a 42-inch plasma TV to be normal furnishing for a room that omitted a couch and a comfortable chair.

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Next February, somewhere in America, someone out there is going to flip on his tube for some “Law & Order: SVU” and see nothing but fuzz. He’ll probably grapple with his rabbit ears and pound the side of his aging CRT, but no amount of cajoling will bring back Ice-T’s interrogation room or Richard Belzer’s last unfunny stand. That’s because on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, the FCC will repossess the analog spectrum from the major television broadcasters and the networks will go all-digital.

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