Pixalate Launches CTV App Pre-Bid Blocklist to Combat Fraud and Non-Compliance — Pixalate, Inc.

Event summary

Pixalate introduced the High Risk Apps (HRA) CTV app pre-bid blocklist on August 21, 2026, identifying dangerous and fraudulent CTV apps across 9 operating systems.
The blocklist evaluates 378,622 CTV app-platform pairs, covering 52,102 unique apps across major CTV app stores.
The blocklist uses 9 risk reason codes, including high IVT rates, missing privacy policies, abandoned apps, and missing app-ads.txt files.
The blocklist is updated daily and available via AWS RTB Fabric, APIs, FTP, or S3 bucket through Pixalate’s Pre-Bid Blocking Data Feeds.

The big picture

Pixalate's new pre-bid blocklist addresses the growing concern of ad fraud and non-compliance in the programmatic CTV advertising space. By providing a daily-updated list of high-risk apps, Pixalate aims to help buyers and sellers exclude dangerous and fraudulent apps from their campaigns before a bid is placed. This aligns with the Media Rating Council's guidance to use lists of known dangerous or fraudulent sources in addition to impression-level IVT classifications. The blocklist's comprehensive evaluation of apps across multiple risk dimensions sets a new standard for ad fraud prevention and privacy compliance in the industry.

What we're watching

Ad Fraud Prevention: How the adoption of pre-bid blocklists will affect the programmatic advertising industry's ability to combat ad fraud.
Regulatory Compliance: Whether the increased focus on privacy compliance and app store terms of service will lead to stricter regulations in the CTV advertising space.
Market Dynamics: The pace at which other ad tech platforms will develop similar pre-bid blocklists to compete with Pixalate's offering.