Bates may benefit as Sky cools down.(Brief Article)

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst seems to be the most constructive advice anybody can offer to Bates UK following the agency's expected capture of BSkyB's 40 million [pounds sterling] creative account.

Sky's rollercoaster relationship with agencies -- one moment veering towards a big, established shop, the next relying on a mish-mash of small operations -- does not bode well. You'd be hard pressed to get good odds on the account not leaving its new home within 18 months.

Curiously, though, agencies that have worked for Sky have an ambivalent attitude towards it. Media clients are invariably tough, difficult and demanding and Sky is no exception. Talk to managers who have been involved with the account and a picture emerges of an advertiser that pays well but expects to squeeze the pips out of the agency before moving on to the next.

Yet the rollercoaster ride can be as exciting as it is unpredictable and it's hard to find an agency that isn't sad to see the business leave and wouldn't welcome the chance to have another go and finish what it started.

Having had relationships with three shops -- WCRS, M&C Saatchi and St Luke's -- in as many years, is the Sky leopard about to change its spots? And should it even ...