Virgin Media Could Sign Big Brother Deal

Sir Richard Branson’s company, Virgin Media, is said to be in secret talks with Channel 4 to sponsor Big Brother, after the news that Carphone Warehouse pulled the plug on their deal.

According to reports in the trade press, if the two companies do reach a deal, Virgin Media could gain exclusive access to video-on-demand content, giving it an advantage in its battle with BSkyB for subscribers.

Earlier this month, Channel 4’s reality behemoth lost its £3 million a year Carphone Warehouse sponsorship, after the telecoms giant pulled the plug on the deal following the much publicised racism row (see Carphone Warehouse Hangs Up On Big Brother).

Virgin Media is locked in a battle with BSkyB after Sky removed its basic channels from Virgin in a row over carriage payments (see Consumer Pressure Group Wades In To Virgin/Sky War).

The Big Brother sponsorship package includes branding and advertising opportunities across TV, video-on-demand, online, radio and mobile.

If the deal goes ahead Virgin could also gain exclusive content from the Big Brother house for its mobile phone customers, boosting its quad-play offering of cable TV, broadband, mobile phone and telephone landline (see Virgin Media Launches Today).

Virgin Media: www.virginmedia.com Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com