screen-up - the future of television up close and personal and a big backstage party

For the 26th time, the motto was: Clear the stage for the future of television. However, the opening of this year's screen-up took place backstage. Comedian Sven Ivanić led the audience through the backstage area, where the official afterparty was later held. At the end of his tour, he brought the two CEOs of hosts Admeira and Goldbach Media - Frank Zelger and Alexander Duphorn - on stage in Hall 622 in Oerlikon.

The two welcomed over 700 guests and took the opportunity to celebrate the SRG broadcasters' accession to Replay TV advertising together with the audience. This means that advertisers can now reach the whole of Switzerland with replay ads campaigns. Duphorn announced that the major private TV station groups in French-speaking Switzerland, M6 and TF1, will follow in 2026.

This was followed by the heart of the screen-up: the screenings of over 40 TV channels with lots of TV highlights.

CANAL+ kicked things off with a trailer - and showed its international appeal. The leading pay-TV provider connects film fans and sports enthusiasts with premium entertainment: from blockbusters shortly after their theatrical release to exclusive series and gripping top-class football. A program that arouses emotions and inspires audiences in over 50 countries.

SRG presented its program highlights for the coming year under the motto "In the middle of the action". For 60 minutes, it showed live elements, talks and exclusive trailers in a varied screening.

The opening event was dedicated to sport: with live commentary by Reto Müller and Philippe Furrer and an interview with goalkeeping legend Leonardo Genoni, SRG presented its extensive sports program for 2026, including the home ice hockey World Cup, the men's football World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico and the classic ski events in Adelboden, Wengen and Kitzbühel.

In the area of information, Florian Inhauser led us through a special edition in the Tagesschau setting, delved deeper into the topic of fact checking with Director General Susanne Wille and showed how SRG is strengthening its mission in the digital world.

There was no shortage of fiction either: comedy talent Anaïs Decasper presented the new Swiss sitcom "Our Little Message", in which she will make her series debut in October 2025. The new crime thriller series "Blind" will also be shown for the first time. The adaptation of the international bestseller by Swiss author Christine Brand will come to TV in 2026.

Mona Vetsch had some powerful docutainment stories in her luggage. These include the four-part documentary series "Inside Gstaad Palace", which takes a look behind the scenes of the iconic Swiss hotel in November 2025.

In 2026, the national series "Aiming high - from the lowest to the highest point" will accompany participants from all parts of the country, from Ticino to the Dufourspitze.

In the entertainment block, Nik Hartmann and Kiki Maeder unveiled the new studio design for "Happy Day". SRG also announced two special highlights for 2026: the documentary series "Shaolin Challenge" and the music format "En route vers Broadway".

At the end, Nik Hartmann and Kiki Maeder reinterpreted the ESC hit "Made in Switzerland", accompanied by impressive images from the SRG program.

Goldbach finds "The Power of TV", RTL Germany spreads campfire atmosphere

At the start of the second screening block, co-host Goldbach Media first showed with a commercial and then live on stage what "The Power of TV" means in a fragmented advertising world. CEO Alex Duphorn emphasized how TV convinces through reach, emotion, trust, impact and brand safety.

After Goldbach's contribution, a campfire atmosphere arose - combined with a slight fear of having to eat a few creepy-crawlies. This was because RTL Germany quickly transformed the stage into a jungle camp. But instead of reality and ex-sports stars, presenter Angela Finger-Erben and the station managers Kirsten Petersen (Program Director VOX), Markus Küttner (RTL Head of Entertainment) and Oliver Schablitzki (Managing Director SUPER RTL and Head of Multichannel) sat around the campfire. And instead of animal jungle trials, the audience was treated to various trailers with lots of TV highlights for all target groups.

RTL brings new seasons of audience favorites "DSDS", "Das Sommerhaus der Stars" or "Stefan und Bully gegen irgendson Schnulli" and the new primetime show quiz "Die Unzerquizbaren" with Elton and Stefan Raab to the screen. Plus lots of sport with the NFL and the new weekly top match of the 2nd Bundesliga (both formats also on NITRO).

On VOX, audiences can look forward to great shows, documentaries and series - including "Mälzer's Master Class", "Die Höhle der Löwen", "Asternweg - 10 Jahre danach" and "Club der roten Bänder". NITRO offers a different kind of history lesson with "Wigald & Eko - Die Geschichtsjäger 2.0" and, of course, the youngest target group is not neglected either: TOGGO shows exciting formats for children such as "Ninja Warrior Germany Kids Academy" or "Weasy Family".

For those who want to put together their own program, RTL+ offers plenty of highlights to stream: From sport, entertainment and reality to great programs such as "Neue Geschichten vom Pumuckl", "Euphorie" and "Nibelungen - Kampf der Königreiche".

RTLZWEI remains the "Home of Reality"

RTLZWEI continued with lots of entertainment and docutainment. Program managers Konstanze Beyer (Factual & Doku) and Malte Kruber (Entertainment) made it clear that RTLZWEI will remain the "Home of Reality" in the coming year. In the first trailer, they presented audience favorites such as "Love Island VIP" and "Battle of the Reality Stars" - and the Geissens were not to be missed either. They provide new stories with the new format "Die Geissens: Traumjob Prinzessin".

The second trailer focused on docutainment and showed established audience favorites such as "Bella Italia" and "Mensch Retter" as well as exciting new releases: "Die Imbisshelden - Voll lecker" and "Mensch Polizist - Die Nachwuchscops" expand the genre with new insights.

National and regional TV power with CH Media

The appearances by the two TV giants from Germany were followed by national and regional TV power. TeleZüri presenter Vanessa Meier and the two station managers Wolfgang Elsässer (TV National) and Florian Wanner (TV Regional) took the audience on an interplanetary journey through the Swiss media cosmos.

Planet "News and Reality" featured reality classics such as "Young, Wild & Sexy" and "Reality Island". The regional channels presented their talk formats "TalkTäglich" and "SonnTalk" as well as the celebrity format "LifeStyle".

The next stop was the "Culinary Planet" with the new in-house production "Double tastes better", in which the two star chefs and twins Fabio Toffolon and Dominik Sato compete against each other with regional specialties. Riccardo Dillier, Head of Marketing at Oswald Nahrungsmittel GmbH, took to the stage and explained to the audience why the company relies on TV.

On the planet "Music", singer Nicky B Fly surprised the audience with a performance. She sang her song "Bomaye" and talked about her participation in the 3+ classic "Sing meinen Song - das Schweizer Tauschkonzert".

In addition to the trailer, the "Stories" planets featured a video message from the popular presenters Moser and Schelker, who introduced their new show "Wer will Wochenende". Good news for sports fans awaited on the "Sport" planet: 3+ and TV24 are now broadcasting up to 55 National League matches.

Elsässer and Wanner then returned to the stage to announce a world premiere: "7 vs. Wild - Swiss Edition". This is the first time the survival reality show has been adapted for a single country. At the end of the screening, Danilo Sellaro, the new Bachelor, who can be seen on 3+ this fall, crashed the stage.

Lots of swinging and big news at SWISS1

After CH Media, SWISS1 created a great atmosphere on stage with plenty of Swissness and humor. Valerian Mollet, comedian and this year's winner of the SWISS COMEDY AWARD in the Best Talent category, took to the stage for the station and poked fun at the Swiss TV world. He also presented the program highlights of SWISS1 with his very own touch and announced big news: The Swiss Comedy Awards! will be broadcast live on SWISS1 in autumn 2026. From next year, SWISS1 will host the most important awards ceremony in the Swiss humor industry, offering an entertaining television experience for the audience and an attractive environment for advertisers.

Other program highlights include the successful "SWISS1 SCHWINGET" format, which will be continued in summer 2026 following its great success in 2025 (over 1.5 million viewers) with live broadcasts of various wrestling festivals. From October 27, SWISS1 will be showing the biggest Christmas movie special on free TV every day during prime time - including over 20 free TV premieres.

This was followed by contributions from blue, WeDoTV, Media One and CSTAR

The screening of blue Sport and blue Zoom proved that sports and entertainment fans can continue to look forward to plenty of football, but also comedy, music, film, series and talks - where real emotions and legendary moments can be experienced live.

The wedotv trailer showed the diverse program of the Swiss streaming platform with feature films, sports, reality and nature formats, documentaries and much more - presented by an almost accent-free marmot.

Media One showed how diverse and varied the program is on carac's five TV channels - with cinema, live sport, business, cuisine, music, culture and society.

The French-language channel CSTAR, which has been marketed by Goldbach since this year, showed in its trailer what TV audiences can expect in the areas of music, cinema, series, shows, magazines and entertainment.

Seven.One Entertainment Group with TV highlights directly from the Munich Hofbräuhaus

After the break, Andrea Haemmerli, Managing Director of Seven.One Entertainment Group Switzerland, opened the last screening block. As in previous years, Seven.One transformed the stage into a TV Total studio, where presenter Sebastian Pufpaff and his guests led the audience through the program.

For the Joyn-ProSieben highlights, however, the brown crumpled chairs on the stage remained empty for the time being. Instead, Pufpaff went straight to Munich's Hofbräuhaus for the "HeidiFest" with station boss Hannes Hiller. In his search for Heidi Klum, he met various station celebrities and presented TV highlights such as the Joko and Klaas shows "Ein sehr gutes Quiz (mit hoher Gewinnsumme)" and "Das Duell um die Welt - Team Joko gegen Team Klaas", the new reality adventure "The Hunt" and the new cooking series "Die Cooking Academy" - and he even found Heidi at the end.

The program then continued on stage with the station highlights from Joyn Kabel Eins such as "Rosin & Kumptner - Mission Mittendrin!", in which the two top chefs Frank Rosin and Alex Kumptner have to immerse themselves in unknown worlds. Channel boss Felix von Mengden also announced more episodes of the successful docu-soap "Morlock Motors" about Michael Manousakis and his crew.

On stage with him was Ellen Koch, station manager of Joyn Sixx, Joyn Sat.1 Gold, Joyn ProSieben Maxx and Joyn Kabel Eins Doku. In the trailer she brought along from Joyn ProSieben Maxx, she showed what the station has to offer in terms of women's sport.

Then it was Joyn SAT1's turn. Channel boss Marc Rasmus presented the new season of "The Taste" with top Swiss chef Elif Oskan and other highlights such as "Die Landarztpraxis", the new comedy series "Frier & 50 - Am Ende meiner Tage" and the new quiz show "The Connection" with Matthias Opdenhövel.

Of course, the focus was also on the Swiss TV program and the streaming platform Joyn. Haemmerli explained to Pufpaff how Joyn has developed after one year and what highlights and originals await the audience in the fall. These include the new shows "Signature Dish" with Noah Bachofen & Luca Franzoni from November, "Kurds in the Ear" (Yoldaş & Serhat) already in its third season and "Ski School Salar" with Salar Bahrampoori in season 2. The highly relevant documentary "Game Over - The Credit Suisse Case", which was number one in Swiss cinemas for weeks, and the Swiss romantic film "LOVE ROULETTE" by and starring Yvonne Eisenring can also be seen on Joyn. The romantic comedy will be released in cinemas in December and can then be seen exclusively on Joyn.

At the end of the Seven.One performance, there was not a TV highlight, but a music highlight: Swiss pop and soul singer Stefanie Heinzmann took to the stage and sang her new single "Good" accompanied by Jan "Klinke Supreme" Klinkenberg.

M6 and TF1 with successful formats and new products

At the end of this year's screenings, Groupe M6 and Groupe TF1 once again focused on the French-speaking target groups.

Jérôme Fouqueray, Program Director M6, W9 and 6ter, opened the screening of Groupe M6 and showed their highlights for 2025/2026 in the trailer. M6 relies on a mix of successful formats such as "Pékin Express" and "L'Amour est dans le pré" as well as new features such as the daily series "Nouveau Jour" or the game show "99 à battre".

W9 appeals to a young target group with new seasons of reality formats such as "Les Cinquante", "The Power" and "The Cerveau". Another major new addition to the program is "Tout beau tout n9uf" with Cyril Hanouna. 6ter, on the other hand, continues to focus on family-friendly formats such as "C'est du propre !" and "Vive le camping" and is expanding its film and fiction offering.

International Sales Executive Director, Emmanuel Maze-Sencier, then presented TF1's line-up for 2025/2026. The channel is focusing on four central pillars: live formats, French creations, information and entertainment. Around 20 new projects are in preparation, including "Montmartre", "L'Été 36" and the second season of "Cat's Eyes". New formats have also been announced in the entertainment sector, including "Extracted", "The Box" and "Stars à domicile".

With their presentations, both station groups emphasized their strength in the premium segment and reaffirmed their ambition to continue reaching a broad, cross-generational audience in the future.

With that, the screenings were over and Alex Duphorn and Frank Zelger took the stage one last time to thank the guests, point out the next screen-up on September 17, 2026 and the next Screenforce Day on May 27, 2026 and then dismiss them to the evening program with dinner and afterparty.