The likes of Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week could soon become TV antiques after a BBC executive said panel shows would be ditched for formats that 'embrace technology'.

Entertainment commissioning editor Pinki Chambers said that anything that appears to belong in the 'entertainment-panelly-sort-of-quiz-sort-of-space' would not be commissioned in the future.

She said that the national broadcaster would instead look to create TV shows like The Mash Report, which was created by the authors of the satirical Daily Mash website.

Have I Got News for You: The format, after many long years of success, is on the way out

Mock the Week, though its popularity has declined, has enjoyed huge success

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Ms Chambers - quoted by The Times - said anything that feels like it 'could have been done five to ten years ago' would be avoided, adding: 'What we are not looking for is any more panel shows.'

'In a world where everyone's a satirist . . . if you've got Twitter and you've got Facebook you're likely to have an opinion and every now and again that might even go viral,' she said.

It was time, she concluded, for the BBC to 'up our game a little bit'.

Last of the panel shows? QI, formerly hosted by Stephen Fry

The writing may have already been on the wall in 2015, when once-popular music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks was cancelled because its ratings fell below one million.

There has been a similar decline in viewers for Have I Got News for you and Mock the Week.

But the former - still led by Paul Merton and Ian Hislop - still draws in about four million viewers per episode.