Plea from Edinburgh Comedy Awards boss

The producer of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards has called on the BBC not to neglect new talent once BBC Three moves online only.

And Nica Burns said the Corporation should invest in advertising its online comedy better, for fear its it will be overlooked once it no longer has a broadcast slot.

Speaking at a lunch to welcome industry figures to the Edinburgh Fringe, Burns said the traditional route to fame was via Radio 4 and panel shows – 'but the Holy Grail is your own TV series'.

She added: 'TV programmes cost a lot to make, TV commissioners need ratings and risks on comedy unknowns are hard to take – and then hard to back if the first series doesn’t quite crack it.

'That’s why there was such a reaction when the BBC announced they were intending to axe BBC Three: a 300,000-viewer petition, protesting performers and a massive industry outcry. BBC Three was set up in 2003 specifically to appeal to 16-34 year olds – and, in the words of the then Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, to be a “powerhouse of new talent”, the young speaking to the young, and it was.'

She cited Little Britain, Gavin & Stacey, Him & Her, Mighty Boosh, and Bad Education as successes to have come through the channel. But rather than slate the Corporation's decision to move it online only, she praised the way comedy has been developed on iPlayer, including the recent bath of Comedy Feed pilots.

'I’ve just watched 2014 Foster's comedy newcomer Dane Baptiste’s very funny sitcom pilot Sunny D on iPlayer,' she said. 'A series waiting to happen.

'But if I hadn’t been told about Sunny D I don’t know how I would have known how to search for it. I’m no television or online expert but it seems to me that comedy online is a bit like the Fringe in its very early days, the Wild West, a new frontier.

'Sure it’s a great way for young comedians to get up and make their own comedy shorts, all you need is a camera and if you haven’t got one, your phone, but in the end of the day whether you are an online comedy producer and a proper company or you are entrepreneurial self-funded performer what you still really want is broadcast. To be picked up online and put onto a channel.'

Citing research that BBC expects to lose a lot of young viewers with move online – which has provisionally been agreed for January by the BBC Trust – Burns added: 'The jury is still out. Let’s see them fight to keep those viewers. Let’s see them really embrace online comedy and use the might of the BBC to attract the next generation of viewers. Let’s see them promoting it.

'I want to see promotion on all the sites visited by 16-34 year olds. What about going slightly further and advertising around the TV reviews in the national newspapers and more promotion on BBC One and Two. I don’t believe that proper promotion will break their budget. This is what will make online comedy work and give it a chance to pay off by giving the BBC a series that can go on to BBC Two and BBC One, which is their holy grail.'

Burns – who is celebrating 35 years of the comedy awards,now sponsored by Foster's – concluded: 'We have great comedy talent in the UK – let’s see it developed.'

Published: 9 Aug 2015