[Red Moon]

Virgin Mobile backs Big Brother spin-off

Virgin Mobile has signed up to sponsor E4's Big Brother Celebrity Hijack next month.

Parent company Virgin Media sponsored the summer series of Big Brother, but had balked at signing for next month's celebrity spin-off as a package, instead opting to gauge how the reality show was received following the Shilpa Shetty racism furore.

Channel 4 decided not to run Celebrity Big Brother on its main network in the wake of the racism row, but Celebrity Hijack will run on digital entertainment service E4 instead.

The sponsorship of the E4 show, which will have a range of celebrities take the role of Big Brother, will focus on the Virgin Mobile brand.

Virgin Mobile's Big Brother sponsorship will include programming that runs on Channel 4's 4oD service and on Virgin Media's video-on-demand platform.

As with Big Brother in the summer, the E4 series sponsorship will be promoted with a set of promotional clips, created by ad agency RKCR/Y&R, using archive footage of Big Brother shows from around the world with humorous subtitles.

Virgin Mobile, which had first right of refusal on taking the E4 sponsorship, will be hosting VIP nights for staff and competition winners to visit the Elstree film studios where the programme is recorded during live evening shows.

A series of 30-minute Virgin Mobile-branded podcasts, featuring James Corden and Mathew Horne from Gavin & Stacey, will be available via iTunes, E4.com and 4Radio.

Big Brother Celebrity Hijack will run on E4 from January 3 to 28.

Source: Guardian