The FCC mandate that television broadcasters turn off analog signals and fully switch to digital delivery is this year's Y2K: The industry, from networks to big box retailers hoping to move 50-inch plasma screens, has consumers in a frenzy.

Best Buy and Circuit City will be more than happy to remind Americans that 9.4 percent of them are considered "Completely Unready," and will lose their ability to get a signal beginning Feb. 17, 2009, when the big switch – to free up some of the broadcast spectrum to resell it with much higher licensing fees to other operators – is made.

Television operators, meanwhile, are doing everything they can to make sure customers are prepared for the switch, trying to school them on whether their old analog sets will need converters, or whether their new flat screens are A-OK for February's messiah. (One network in Las Vegas even flipped the switch early to tell customers whether they'd be left behind or not.)

But what happens when those television operators, like software salesmen during Y2K, completely lie to you about your risks?

Unlike "Y2K compliance" experts, who were inclined to tell you the world would end and your computer would attack you in your sleep when Jan. 1, 2000, came, DirecTV is accused of falsely telling customers they'll be all set for the switch, when some of them won't be.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV is airing misleading public service messages telling subscribers they don’t need to do anything in advance of the country’s Feb. 17, 2009, transition from analog to digital TV transmission.

“Television has gone through some big changes … the transition from black-and-white to color, from small screens to giant screens, from cable to satellite. Now by law local broadcasters must transition from analog to digital. So how will this affect me?” says DirecTV’s message.

“It won’t. DirecTV customers have always enjoyed 100% digital picture, so I don’t have to do a thing. It feels good to be ahead of the curve. Relax. You’ve got 100% digital DirecTV.”

In fact, some DirecTV subscribers get some or all of their local channels over-the-air—DirecTV won’t say how many—and will lose access to those channels if they don’t get converter boxes or new digital TVs. Other DirecTV customers have secondary TV sets that may need to be connected to the DirecTV service or need converter boxes to continue to work.

While the public service ad’s announcer doesn’t mention at all the possibility that steps may be necessary, the message ends by displaying a Web address and, in small type, “If you are not getting your local channels through DirecTV, visit us online for more information.” [TVWeek]

And when DirecTV was totally called on their misleading information? A spokesperson defending the marketing message, wrapped into a PSA, this way: "The PSAs are designed to avoid confusing the vast majority of our customers, who will not be affected by the digital transition because they receive locals via DirecTV, while assisting the small number of customers who receive locals off-air by directing them to our Web site, where they have access to all the information they need to prepare for the transition." Too bad DirecTV won't tell you exactly how many subscribers fall into that "small number of customers."