With the publishing of its Digital Radio Action Plan, the new Government has clearly bought into digital radio switchover, with a subtle change of emphasis to what's gone before.
Gone is the barely optional headlong dive for 2015, which was promoted by the previous Government's Digital Britain Report.
According to Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, the new Government will coax public acceptance of FM switch-off, rather than forcing the pace of transition.
"The Digital Radio Action Plan I am publishing today sets out our clear commitment to make progress towards digital radio switchover. But I am not setting a date," he said. "The industry believes 2015 is an achievable target date and we will work to support that ambition. And when the weight of public opinion is behind it, with more than half of all radio listening digital, then we can take the decision on when the country will be ready for switchover."
The Plan even goes so far as to use the phrase "if, or when, the market is ready".
This said, the intention of the forceful Digital Britain report - which formed the basis of the Digital Economy Act 2010 that was ratified in the dying days of the previous Government - was always to have switch-over a minimum of two years after radio listening was 50% DAB - figures that have made it into the Act in sprit, as far as I can tell, rather than in explicit binding paragraphs.
Currently around 25% of radio listening is over DAB.
To its credit, the Plan is largely a business-like list of milestones and dates aiming at a pain-free - or at least none-to-painful - transition to all-DAB listening for all but ultra-local FM radio stations.
Much of it is nuts-and-bolts technical scheduling, although there is a significant chunk dedicated to marketing switch-over as a good idea.
Written in is the consumer expert group that was formed to review digital TV switch-over - including RNIB, British Wireless for the Blind Fund, the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, and Citizens' Advice - which has agreed to do the same for radio.
The Plan's schedule ranges broadly, and does seek to cover some of the objections raised by those opposed to FM switch-off, including: sound quality, the cost of converting a household to DAB, automotive reception, and increasing DAB coverage to match FM.
However, power consumption, the other major concern of those wanting to keep FM, is largely ignored.
"Digital transmission networks are significantly more energy efficient than their analogue equivalents. For example, it is estimated that transmitting Classic FM nationally via DAB uses less than 7% of the electricity needed to transmit it via FM. Local and regional DAB transmissions offer energy savings of around 50 per cent," said Vaizey's department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) at the launch of the Plan.
To back up its power claims, DCMS released an independent report on the power consumption of DAB and FM radios, written by Intertek in Milton Keynes.
For reasons I have yet to fathom, battery-only receivers, which are most likely to suffer if DAB radios take more power than FM-only receivers, are not covered.
Based on the mains consumption of 164 different radios, the report concludes there is little difference between FM and DAB radio consumption (Table 1 in the report, if you are interested).
Although more detailed tables (Table 2, for example) show most DAB radios consuming significantly more power than FM-only models, except in the home cinema and Hi-Fi class where DAB equipment wins easily.
It also shows digital receivers gradually improving their power consumption while FM receivers have stagnated.
Interestingly, Internet streaming radios have the worst power consumption of all.