The company, which was halfway through a five-year contract thought to be worth around £100m, will now be invited to tender along with other potential suppliers for Sky's marketing communications.

A spokeswoman for Sky said: "Further to our review of print buying, we have decided to move our Marcomms print management in-house. Over the coming weeks, we will be requesting and reviewing proposals from a number of potential suppliers for our Marcomms ongoing print work.

"Our expectation is that, once a team is in place internally, they will undertake print management, allocating work to a chosen pool of print suppliers depending on the spec of each job. This will provide us with an efficient and flexible structure going forwards."

The loss of the Sky Marcomms contract, which comes just three weeks after TPF lost its £2.5m-a-year transactional print contract with the satellite broadcaster, will come as a severe blow to TPF, although the Northampton-based firm hopes to hang on to a significant portion of Sky's Marcomms spend.

TPF chief executive Steve Brundle said: "This has been a very special relationship and we're naturally sad to be losing such a superb print management client. We'll now be in there fighting harder than anyone for Sky's work as a manufacturer and I've no doubt that our unique experience and knowledge of their brand will stand us in particularly good stead."

Sky and TPF began working together in 2003, when TPF won Sky's then £10m-a-year print management contract from Centurion.

Brundle added: "I'm truly proud of what TPF has helped Sky achieve over the last five years and I look forward to this new phase in our relationship."