LONDON, Oct. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pixalate, a global ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today published the September 2026 update to its free monthly OpenEPG™ Index, the programmatic advertising industry's first public benchmark of streaming TV content built on real-world U.S. open programmatic ad spend and U.S. consumer reach — across both small screens (mobile) and large screens (CTV).
The September Index ranks 620,000+ shows mapped in OpenEPG DB™ 1.0 — with the top 100 by measured U.S. consumer reach published free each month.
Key observations:
- Lifetime's NCIS ranked No. 1 on large-screen (CTV) for the second consecutive month, with Lifetime placing four series in the CTV top 10 (NCIS, Castle, The Rookie, Rizzoli & Isles) and capturing 16% of CTV ad spend, the most of any channel
- The Weather Channel's America's Morning Headquarters led the small-screen (mobile) rankings for the third consecutive month, with The Weather Channel sweeping the top three mobile slots and capturing 25% of mobile streaming TV ad spend
- Weather and seasonal programming climbed on CTV: Weathernation's live weather coverage rose from No. 33 to No. 2, and Travel Channel's Paranormal Caught On Camera jumped from outside the top 1,000 to No. 7 ahead of Halloween
- Large screens captured 76% of all streaming TV ad spend in September 2026, up from 64% in August; News led CTV with 24% of ad spend, ahead of Reality (21%)
- News accounted for 45% of U.S. mobile streaming TV open programmatic ad spend, up from 35% in August; live sports reached the mobile top 10, led by Stadium's Bare Knuckle Boxing
News Leads Streaming TV Ad Spend in September 2026
| Genre | Mobile (Ad Spend SOV) | CTV (Ad Spend SOV) | ||
| News | 45% | 24% | ||
| Reality | 9% | 21% | ||
| Documentary | 13% | 14% | ||
| Crime | 8% | 13% | ||
| Sport | 7% | 5% | ||
| Comedy | 8% | 4% | ||
The Index ranks shows by estimated U.S. consumer reach and measures each show's share of open programmatic ad spend — by screen, genre, market, and daypart. September's patterns:
- CTV ad spend shifted toward scripted crime drama: Lifetime (NCIS, Castle, The Rookie, Rizzoli & Isles) became the top CTV channel by ad spend (16%), ahead of HGTV (9%), while Food Network fell to 3%
- Mobile split between weather news and A&E: The Weather Channel took the top three shows by reach (America's Morning Headquarters, The Weather Channel LIVE, Weather Unfiltered) and 25% of mobile ad spend; A&E slipped to No. 2 on mobile (18%, down from 27% in August) even as its CTV share tripled to 6%, led by Storage Wars and Live PD: Greatest Shifts
- National news out-earned local news: about five of every six dollars of streaming TV ad spend on news shows went to national outlets rather than local stations
- Live sports skewed to the big screen: large screens captured 70% of live-sports ad spend, with Soccer (43%) No. 1 ahead of Boxing/MMA (24%) and Basketball (5%)
OpenEPG™ Index September 2026 Rankings
Large Screen — Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung & Apple TV (Combined)
Ranked by consumer reach; ad-spend and reach figures are share of voice.
| # | Show | Channel | Genre | Top U.S. Market | Ad Spend SOV | Reach SOV | Top Daypart | ||
| 1 | NCIS | Lifetime | Crime | New York | 5.0% | 5.5% | Prime Time | ||
| 2 | Top Weather News, Regional Forecasts, Live Severe Coverage, and Local Weather | Weathernation | News | New York | 2.7% | 3.0% | Prime Time | ||
| 3 | Castle | Lifetime | Drama | New York | 2.1% | 2.3% | Afternoon | ||
| 4 | Shark Tank | CNBC | Reality | New York | 1.6% | 1.8% | Prime Time | ||
| 5 | Storage Wars | A&E | Reality | New York | 1.2% | 1.3% | Morning | ||
| 6 | The Rookie | Lifetime | Crime | New York | 1.2% | 1.3% | Afternoon | ||
| 7 | Paranormal Caught On Camera | Travel Channel | Documentary | New York | 1.0% | 1.2% | Morning | ||
| 8 | Rizzoli & Isles | Lifetime | Crime | New York | 0.9% | 1.0% | Prime Time | ||
| 9 | My Lottery Dream Home | HGTV | Reality | New York | 0.9% | 0.9% | Prime Time | ||
| 10 | Live PD: Greatest Shifts | A&E | Crime | Los Angeles | 0.7% | 0.8% | Prime Time | ||
Small Screen — Android & iOS (Combined)
Ranked by estimated consumer reach
| # | Show | Channel | Genre | Top U.S. Market | Ad Spend SOV | Reach SOV | Top Daypart | ||
| 1 | America's Morning Headquarters | The Weather Channel | News | New York | 8.8% | 8.3% | Morning | ||
| 2 | The Weather Channel LIVE | The Weather Channel | News | New York | 3.5% | 2.9% | Afternoon | ||
| 3 | Weather Unfiltered | The Weather Channel | News | New York | 2.6% | 2.6% | Prime Time | ||
| 4 | Boys Over Flowers | AsianCrush | Comedy | Los Angeles | 1.6% | 2.4% | Overnight | ||
| 5 | On The Scene | Scripps News | News | New York | 1.9% | 2.2% | Afternoon | ||
| 6 | Bare Knuckle Boxing | Stadium | Sport | Cleveland-Akron (Canton) | 1.5% | 2.0% | Afternoon | ||
| 7 | Morning Rush | Scripps News | News | New York | 1.6% | 1.9% | Morning | ||
| 8 | Today as It Happened | Scripps News | News | New York | 1.3% | 1.4% | Prime Time | ||
| 9 | The National Report | Scripps News | News | New York | 1.3% | 1.3% | Overnight | ||
| 10 | America's Weekend Headquarters | The Weather Channel | News | New York | 1.1% | 1.3% | Morning | ||
All trademarks, service marks, and trade names referenced herein (including but not limited to Lifetime, Weathernation, CNBC, A&E, Travel Channel, HGTV, The Weather Channel, AsianCrush, Scripps News, Stadium, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung, and Apple TV) are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification purposes only. No endorsement, affiliation, or sponsorship is implied.
Availability
The top 100 OpenEPG™ Index public rankings are updated monthly and available at pixalate.com.
The OpenEPG™ Index is powered by OpenEPG DB™ 1.0 — Pixalate's database mapping 620,000+ streaming TV shows across 14,100+ channels and 7,300+ apps — and Pixalate OpenEPG™ Analytics, which resolves TV shows using only standard bidstream Bundle IDs, with no publisher opt-in required.
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012 and recognized by UNICEF as a "key innovator" for children's online privacy, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Contact: press@pixalate.com
Disclaimer
OpenEPG™ data reflects Pixalate's opinions based on open-exchange signals and public EPG data; no assurances or guarantees are made as to the accuracy or completeness of any classification, resolution, or rating. Attributions are for identification and measurement purposes only and imply no affiliation, partnership, or endorsement. IVT metrics follow Pixalate's MRC-accredited methodology and do not constitute a finding of fraud or any violation of law or platform policy. Pixalate's full disclaimer can be found here.
