Broadcasters should not try to replicate online comedy hits – but try to tap into creators’ talents to make new TV shows, the Edinburgh TV Festival heard today.

'TV needs to not try to be digital,’ said comedian Olga Koch. ‘I watch TV to get away from digital.’

Citing the ‘incredible’ Insecure and Overcompensating – whose creators Issa Rae and Benito Skinner started online – she said: ‘It wasn't harnessing whatever they were doing digitally and doing it for 30 minutes or 40 minutes. It was letting them create a TV format with their talents.’

Fellow comic Demi Adejuyigbe agreed, saying: ‘Stop trying to capitulate to Gen Z.

‘They [TV executives] are like, "You got to get the kids," and I'm like, "I don't think you understand that the kids are always going to be watching what the adults watch." They will always try to be part of the older conversation so when you're trying to get shows for them, they see right through it. It’s like trying to be a cool substitute teacher.

‘And they need to know that what works online works because it works in that format. They need to ask what else [creators] can to do on a different medium. But too often they don’t see you as a talent, they see you a bit of established IP [intellectual property] and they just want that IP.’

The panel agreed that TV executives often wanted them for their ‘authenticity’, without realising that the authentic was a curated version of themselves, written by themselves, and couldn’t just be transplanted into a different format. 

Creator Hayley Morris also spoke of a first-hand bad experience when she was selected to take part in a realty TV show by executives who hoped she would bring some of her 4million followers to their project.

She said: ‘It was very eye-opening for me because I was taken on there as someone who had an audience and then told what to say the whole way through

‘It didn't really do that well and my audience saw through the fact that that wasn't me. They [the producers] wanted me to play a character… I was made to be a bit of a princess and a bit stuck up.

‘I think my audience were like, "That's kind of not how she ever comes across". I feel like all my comedy and other content I've ever done is me feeling very much not good enough, very anxious, very much the opposite of feeling confident.’

Despite having success online, the panel also felt they still wanted to break into TV, partly because of the prestige, partly because big budgets would allow them to do more, and partly to escape being a slave to social media algorithms.

Morris said: ‘Looking at social media, it's really hard to do longer stuff on that. I think all of us who do digital really want to make longer stuff. We are limited. I find it really frustrating that you can't have someone's attention for [longer].’

Koch added: ‘What TV is really good for is obviously budget, but also the idea of the kind of world-building that you can have on TV. I'm thinking about the comedy shows that have built my sense of humour, and it’s fully immersive, like  Flight Of The Conchords or Girls5Eva.

‘The idea that you could build out a world and really expand your sense of humour so it’s not just me standing on stage and conjuring an image. I think that's so exciting.’

Koch also spoke of how much of her job as a stand-up now involves feeding social media.

‘You're not just doing gigs any more,’ she said. ‘You do have to post clips and you do have to interact with your audience in some capacity. It entails significantly more things now than it used to.’

She said that speaking to audiences of her live show, she found that she got as many punters through Tonsil Hockey - the podcast she hosts with fellow comic Catherine Bohart – as she does from her appearances on TV shows like QI or Mock The Week 

‘That's really interesting because, obviously, in the grand scheme of media, Tonsil Hockey is a tiny grain of sand compared to Mock The Week or QI,’ she added, explaining that the personal connection of a podcast made listeners much more likely to come.’