The BBC is planning to plant Panorama “minisodes” on the web ahead of each weekly edition in a bid to boost TV audiences and reach younger viewers.

The current affairs team was inspired to make the two-minute trailers after similar minisodes for BBC3's Born Survivors had a massive impact on ratings.

One episode of the BBC3 show, about a 14-year-old mother called Kizzy, premiered on the channel with around 500,000 viewers, but increased that figure to 900,000 when the programme was repeated after a minisode appeared online.

“It was a good documentary, but these minisodes were floating around,” said BBC3 controller Danny Cohen. “They've had a fascinating effect.”

Panorama's ratings have held steady year on year and the strand has attracted an average 3 million viewers/12.6% share so far this year. However, 16 to 34s make up just 11.85% of viewers.

The BBC would not go into further detail about its plans for the show, but confirmed it is looking at “a range of multimedia options”.