Orange staff 'reject' BB sponsorship

Orange has reportedly rejected plans to sponsor the next series of Channel 4's Big Brother after staff objected to the deal.

The mobile provider was approached by Channel 4 to sponsor the show after Carphone Warehouse dropped its £3 million sponsorship last month, following the Celebrity Big Brother controversy in January, which led 40,000 viewers to complain about the reality show.

Orange asked its 12,000 UK staff for their views on the potential deal, but according to The Independent, staff have strongly opposed the idea.

An Orange spokesman told the paper: "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."

Around 7.3 million people tuned in to see Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty win the celebrity show in January, and the opening night of last year's series attracted a record 8.1 million viewers. This year's series is reported to air in late May.

Mobile phone retailer Phones4U, deodorant spray Lynx, and Japanese car firm Toyota, have also been linked to a possible deal to sponsor the show, and Channel 4 say there is still significant interest from a number of high-profile names.