SYFY’s ‘The Twilight Zone’ Led Streaming TV Through Halloween as Horror Titles Captured 24% of CTV Ads, While Election Programming Reach Grew 26x

LONDON, November 5, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pixalate, a global ad fraud and privacy compliance platform, today released OpenEPG™ Index 2.0, introducing weekly programmatic content rankings and expanding its free public database from the top 100 to the top 1,000 streaming TV shows.

Data from the debut weekly benchmark for the week ending November 1, 2026, highlights dual seasonal surges across open programmatic environments:

• Election Influx: Consumer reach for election programming grew 26-fold since early September, with Countdown To Election Night holding a top 10 spot on Large Screen (No. 7) in the final week before the midterms.
• Halloween Audience Peak: Escapist seasonal content surged alongside political coverage, with SYFY’s The Twilight Zone holding the No. 1 overall show rank on Large Screen for three consecutive weeks as horror and holiday titles captured 24% of all CTV ads.

Weekly data shows how fast these shifts happen. Halloween titles went from 1% to 24% of CTV ads in eight weeks, and election reach peaked the week before Election Day. OpenEPG 2.0 tracks these changes show by show from open programmatic bidstream data, with no publisher integration and no waiting on post-campaign panels.

What’s New in OpenEPG™ Index 2.0

• Weekly Cadence: The indexing pipeline transitions from monthly reporting to a rolling Monday–Sunday weekly refresh across Large Screen (CTV) and Small Screen (mobile) environments.
• Top 1,000 Public Dataset: Public benchmark access expands tenfold, publishing the top 1,000 shows sorted by U.S. consumer reach Share of Voice (SOV) at no cost.
• Catalog Scale: Expands active mapping to 675,000+ titles across 16,100+ linear and FAST channels and 7,322 apps.
  
  
  

Benchmark Observations: Week Ending November 1, 2026

• Election Coverage Climbs on CTV: Countdown To Election Night ranked No. 7 on Large Screen with 1.8% consumer reach SOV in the final week before the midterms.
• Political Reach Multiplies 26x on CTV: Dedicated election programming (debates, town halls, and news specials) expanded from 0.1% of Large Screen reach SOV in early September to 2.6% in the week ending November 1, after peaking at 4.0% the week before.
• Halloween Seasonal Concentration: Through Halloween, SYFY’s The Twilight Zone held No. 1 on Large Screen for three consecutive weeks. Horror and holiday titles climbed from 1% of CTV ad impressions in early September to 24% in the week ending November 1, filling 13 of the CTV top 25.
• News Genre Growth on Mobile: Small-screen programmatic ad spend for the News category grew from 24% to 55% between late August and early November. The Weather Channel’s America’s Morning Headquarters ranked No. 1 in seven of the past nine weeks.
  
  

Programmatic TV Share of Voice by Screen: Week Ending November 1, 2026

Top 10 Weekly Streaming TV Rankings: October 26–November 1, 2026

Large Screen (CTV) — Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung, LG & Apple TV

Ranked by estimated U.S. consumer reach share of voice (SOV).

Small Screen (Mobile) — Android & iOS

Ranked by estimated U.S. consumer reach share of voice (SOV).

Protocol & Measurement Mechanics

The OpenEPG™ system ingests bidstream data across standard programmatic environments without requiring publisher coordination:

• Input: Standard OpenRTB bid requests carrying app.bundle and device.ua parameters.
• Resolution Engine: Matches raw bundle strings and daypart signals against OpenEPG DB™ 1.0 program schedules in real time.
• Metrics Generated: Calculates estimated U.S. consumer reach SOV, ad spend SOV, invalid traffic (IVT) rates, and daypart concentration across all 210 U.S. designated market areas (DMAs).
• Delivery: Surfaced via Pixalate's free web index, the enterprise OpenEPG™ Analytics console, and the Pre-Bid API.
  
  

System Metrics

Availability

The weekly OpenEPG™ Index top 1,000 rankings are available today at ratings.pixalate.com. Enterprise programmatic datasets, custom market cuts, historical daypart tracking, and Pre-Bid API access are available via Pixalate OpenEPG™ Analytics.

About Pixalate OpenEPG™ Index 2.0

Built on Pixalate’s OpenEPG DB™ 1.0 engine, the upgraded platform maps 675,000+ shows across 16,100+ channels and 7,322 apps on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Tizen, LG webOS, Apple TV, Android TV, Android, and iOS.

Linear and streaming TV audience measurement historically relied on direct publisher integration, content logs, or automated content recognition (ACR). In open programmatic Connected TV (CTV) and mobile environments, bid requests arrive without show titles, leaving ad buyers blind to specific program placements. The OpenEPG™ engine resolves show-level metadata directly from standard OpenRTB bidstream Bundle IDs in real time, requiring zero publisher-side SDKs, code, or opt-in.

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 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

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 legal finding of fraud or violation of law or platform policy.