Carphone Warehouse has ended its deal with Channel 4 to sponsor Big Brother, two months after the Shilpa Shetty racism row engulfed the celebrity version of the reality show.
The company has held the £3m a year sponsorship contract for the hit show for the past three years.
In January it pulled all of its sponsorship idents from around Celebrity Big Brother in reaction to the negative media coverage of alleged racist bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Carphone Warehouse was still contracted to sponsor this summer's Big Brother series but, following further talks with Channel 4, the phone retailer and broadband provider has decided to pull out of sponsoring the show altogether.
"We constantly review our sponsorship relationships and feel that having suspended the sponsorship during this year's Celebrity Big Brother, that now is a good time to look at the partnership again," said Carphone Warehouse.
"We have concluded that the huge publicity around the show and our involvement within that means it is now time to look for an alternative."
The company still intends to advertise in and around the summer series of Big Brother including taking advertising on the official website.
It also intends to continue to commit a "large portion" of its media spend with Channel 4.
Carphone Warehouse spends £17.8m annually on advertising in the UK, £5.5m of that on TV advertising, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"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.
"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."
The Big Brother sponsorship package includes branding and advertising opportunities across TV, video-on-demand, online, radio and mobile.
Channel 4 added that no regular advertisers have indicated that they do not intend to run campaigns around the next series of Big Brother.
Neither party would confirm whether Carphone Warehouse will be getting any money back from terminating the contract ahead of the end of the original deal.
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