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Orange is poised to sign an extension to its £54 million "gold spot" cinema package and will continue to work with Mother on the ads.

The telecoms company is expected to ink another three-year deal with the Cinema Advertising Association on behalf of the sales houses Pearl & Dean and Carlton Screen Advertising this week. It has charged Mother with creating four films to run from March 2007, when the current gold spot contract ends.

The deal will see Mother continue to work with Orange until at least 2008, despite losing the mobile phone provider's UK advertising account earlier this year. The Publicis Groupe agencies Fallon London and the Paris-based Marcel won the business in March in a global review instigated by Orange's France Telecom parent.

Mother won the contract to continue creating the 60-second ads after both it and Fallon presented script ideas to Orange.

The move strikes a blow for Orange UK's inde-pendence from France Telecom. The Orange UK marketing department was understood to have favoured retaining Mother to its UK advertising account.

The Orange director of brand marketing, Pippa Dunn, said: "Mother's Orange Film Board creative has proved to be one of our most successful in our 12-year history. It is one of those rare campaigns that is loved by both the advertising industry and consumers and we are looking forward to working with Mother to develop it further.

"Orange has a long history of involvement in film - with Bafta, Orange Wednesdays and the gold spot advertising making us the number-one brand associated with film in the UK. In our new world of convergence, broadband and internet protocol TV, this is a heritage we look forward to building on."

The Mother partner Robert Saville said: "We are proud of the work we've done for Orange, particularly the gold spot cinema ads.

"We are thrilled to be continuing our relationship with the company."

Orange signed up for the gold spot package in June 2000. Mother's work has included ads starring Patrick Swayze, the Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin and, most recently, Steven Seagal. The ads have won both D&AD awards and Cannes Lions.