On a dream Assignment

Launching the third season of The Assignment, the channel terms this as a recruitment property as it aims to attract new viewers through this show.Bloomberg TV recently launched the third season of its original format reality show, The Assignment. To add freshness, The Assignment Season 3 has a tweaked format and will work as a property that will attract new audiences, says the channel.

Bloomberg TV recently launched the third season of its original format reality show, The Assignment. To add freshness, The Assignment Season 3 has a tweaked format and will work as a property that will attract new audiences, says the channel.

Bloomberg TV claims that it has three types of programming, of which the show falls in the third category of strategic features. The other two categories are the news features and lifestyle features, apart from the staple business news.

The channel has scheduled the show on Saturday evenings at 7 pm, with repeats on Mondays at the 10:30 pm slot. With these timings, the channel expects to attract the youth and the professionals on lazy Saturday evenings and after-dinner viewing on weekdays, say media experts.

The show, in its first edition, brought people out from the comfort zones of their jobs and assigned them to other jobs for a day. Moving ahead from the concept, in the second season, it worked around the rural theme, wherein they put urban professionals into a rural set up and the jobs there.

Until now, the channel has selected the participants and the jobs given to them. This time, however, the participants will choose their jobs. The show will give participants an opportunity to live a day in their dream job and live them with passion, under an expert's guidance.

Explaining the insight behind the show, Sriram Kilambi, president, Bloomberg TV, says, "People never stop dreaming, even if the things are low and the market is down. And, in everyone's dream resides a dream job that they always wanted to do, no matter whether they are good at it or not."

The channel wants to promote the 'stay with your dream' spirit, giving people a chance to check whether they can - or can't.

Bloomberg TV terms this as a recruitment property, as it aims to attract new viewers through this show. At the same time, with The Assignment Season 3, it expects to improve its revenues by more than 20 per cent over the previous season.

It has certainly not roped in new categories of advertisers, it is learnt. However, interestingly, although it had recently seen a dip in e-commerce advertisers, this show has seen a high demand among the online players. Automobile players have also shown a keen interest in the show inventory.

Media planners and buyers largely feel that in such cases, the viewership depends on two things - the channel and the show. As for the channel, it has a restricted viewership profile, but the show could garner fresh eyeballs, depending on the marketing plan and how many people it touches base with.

Overall, planners say that the format is good, and the added tweak is fine, too. "Though it is a substantial change (chasing the passion), the tweak will add value and will make sure that monotony doesn't creep into the format of the show,"

says a media planner.

To market the show, the television platform will be used sparingly, with more focus on radio and OOH. The channel has also targeted the print medium (mostly trade) for the promotions of the show.