[James]

Orange scraps plans to sponsor 'Big Brother'

By Nic Fildes
Published: 15 March 2007

Orange has pulled out of talks to replace Carphone Warehouse as sponsors of the reality television show Big Brother after its staff opposed the potential deal.

Orange was approached by Channel 4 to sponsor the show after Carphone Warehouse dropped its £3m-a-year sponsorship following the alleged bullying of the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty during the celebrity version of the series in January. The media regulator Ofcom is still investigating allegations of racism related to the controversy after more than 40,000 viewers complained about the show.

Orange decided to gauge the reaction of its 12,000 UK employees to the potential sponsorship of the eighth series of the reality show. Its staff strongly opposed the deal, feedback that was taken into consideration when the mobile phone operator turned down the offer.

An Orange spokesman said: "We asked our staff what they thought about sponsoring Big Brother as we like to get them involved in the decisions their company makes. In this case, the majority of our staff felt that we shouldn't sponsor Big Brother. Having taken this into consideration and having evaluated it further with our sponsorship team, we have declined this opportunity."

A variety of other companies have been linked with the sponsorship deal, with Phones4U, Carphone Warehouse's main rival in the mobile phone retail sector, the deodorant spray manufacturer Lynx, and Toyota, the Japanese car maker, all rumoured to be interested. Channel 4 has said there is still significant interest from a number of high-profile names despite the controversy.

Big Brother still garners high ratings figures. Around 7.3 million people watched Ms Shetty win the celebrity version of the show in January, while the opening night of last year's series attracted a record 8.1 million viewers. This year's series is due to begin in late May.

Endemol, the company that produces Big Brother as well as the hit quiz show Deal or No Deal, has been put up for sale by its parent company Telefonica, the Spanish telecoms giant. It has emerged that the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's television company Mediaset is backing a bid by the company's founder John de Mol to buy the production company.

http://news.independent.co.uk/busine...cle2359150.ece

[MarkWaldorf]

Ohh, I thought Orange would have been a good sponsor for BB. Tis a shame.

[BB-Rocks]

I think Lynx would be good for some reason. I can imagine their advert bits being quite summery

[Sticks]

Maybe there won't be an eighth series as they can not get a sponsor

[MarkWaldorf]

I don't think they'll cancel it just because they don't have a sponsor.

[andybigbro]

aww thats a shame i wanted them to sponsir it

Ohwell

[MarkWaldorf]

They can always resort on EasyJet.

[andybigbro]

Yeah they could

but orange would have been better

[MarkWaldorf]

Orange was probably too high class for them, they're quite popular.

[andybigbro]

So Big borther is very popular all over the world

[MarkWaldorf]

But this is for BBUK, which has recently become a global news story from the whole racism thing. No one's gonna want to work with it.

[andybigbro]

yeah i know its a shame really cos its no tthe shows fault its Jade goody's lmao

[MarkWaldorf]

It's the shows for being stupid enough to air the scenes.

[andybigbro]

They cant not show what happened

Then its not reality its fake so its not the shows fault

[MarkWaldorf]

Well of course they can. They edit 24 hours down to one hour. They can show what they like, but they chose to show it, and that got them in trouble.

[andybigbro]

But if they dont show some bits then there would be no favourites plus there is live streaming

Its not the shpows fault they had to show it they cant not air something

Would you of rathered SHilpa got Bullied Racially to be kept a secret and for none of the public to know............. then Jade winning

And the whole series was basically about that

[MarkWaldorf]

Ok, in English?

[andybigbro]

OMG you cant read that lmao

Try again

[MarkWaldorf]

I have, the lack of punctuation and too many capitals have destroyed it.

[andybigbro]

OMG its easy to read just rea dit slower lmao

[MarkWaldorf]

I can't even read the one above. Type slower.

[andybigbro]

its easy lol how cant you read it

[MarkWaldorf]

I really can't. LOL

[andybigbro]

lol ok i will right i again slower

[MarkWaldorf]

Thanks.