Virgin Media in Big Brother talks

Stephen Brook

Thursday March 15, 2007

Virgin Media is in secret talks with Channel 4 to sponsor Big Brother, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

If the two companies 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.

The negotiations come after Carphone Warehouse dropped its sponsorship - said to be worth £3m annually - earlier this month after Celebrity Big Brother became engulfed in an international storm over alleged racist bullying.

The retailer abruptly pulled its sponsorship idents midway through the programme's run in an unprecendented move in January after contestant Shilpa Shetty endured taunts from other contestants including Jade Goody. At the time Channel 4 denied racist incidents had occurred.

Virgin Media is locked in a fractious battle with BSkyB after Sky removed its basic channels from Virgin in a row over carriage payments.

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 "four-play" offering of cable TV, broadband, mobile phone and telephone landline.

"Channel 4 is currently in talks with a number of high profile brands regarding sponsorship of the eighth series of Big Brother," said a Channel 4 spokeswoman earlier this month after Carphone Warehouse dropped its sponsorship.

"The show remains the original and most talked about reality television show and its ability to reach young people in large numbers is unique and one of extreme value to brands wishing to target this valuable audience."

SuMmArY

The article disusses the sponsorship of channel 4's reality TV show Big Brother. It indicates that Virgin Media has been strongly linked with sponsorship of the show following Carphone Warhouse dropping its sponsorship following the race debate in the Celebrity BB series involving Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty. It also highlights hwo if Virgin acquire the sponsorship they'll be able to compete with BSky B following their rivalry over recent months.

My OpInIoN

In my opinion, this article reinforces the growing phenomomen that it reality TV. Virgin media is a huge corporation competiting with BSkyB and they view a potential sponsorship of BB as a huge acquisition as they'll be able to control content for their mobile phone uses, cable TV and broadband. BB has become a huge show pulling in audiences of 5 million plus and became a centre of debate in the Celebrity series and if Virgin acquire sponsorship it is possible that they'll be able to compete with BSkyB and win competitors. However, its important to realise that Virgin Media will have to do more than just sponsor BB to compete realistically and constantly with Sky