TuneIn is sending around a launch note for its First Play section, which contains exclusive early releases of episodes in new and established podcasts. First Play is an unadorned section within the TuneIn app, in which we found 11 participating podcasts. Networks that are in this plan include WNYC Studios, Gimlet Media, HowStuffWorks, Wondery, and Feral Audio.
New shows drop into First Play up to a week before they can be heard elsewhere. In our spot testing, we found First Play episodes for Tides of History (Wondery) and Spooked (WNYC) also playing on their respective show pages — but recognizing that the structure can be set up and take a week or so to roll into exclusive distribution.
Although we found only 11 podcasts, TuneIn lists more, as seen below — perhaps another indicator that the program is still settling into its shoes on launch day.
- WNYC Studios: Spooked, a new series from Snap Judgment that is No. 1 on the U.S. charts
- Gimlet Media: Uncivil, a new series
- HowStuffWorks: BrainStuff, Ridiculous History and TechStuff Daily Digest
- Wondery: Sword & Scale, I Hate My Boss, Hollywood and Crime, Real Crime Profiles, Tides of History and
- Something You Should Know
- StarTalk: StarTalk Radio, StarTalk All-Stars and StarTalk Playing with Science
- Feral Audio: Harmontown, Dumb People Town, Natch Beaut and Drinky Fun Time
- ESPN Radio: Cinephile: The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast, Doubletruck Stories, Free Cookies and That’s What She Said with Sarah Spain
- Parcast: Serial Killers, Unsolved Murders and Jack the Ripper
- Tenderfoot TV: Sworn
- ABC Radio: 10% Happier with Dan Harris, No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis, Motivated, Uncomfortable
- MRW Productions: The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
- Anonymous: Casefile True Crime
- The Wall Street Journal: Secrets of Wealthy Women
- Dr. Robert Puff, Ph.D.: The Happiness Podcast
- Red Bull Music Academy: Couch Wisdom on the Red Bull Radio
TuneIn has doubled down on podcast distribution in 2017, and reports 27 million listening hours of podcast content so far in 2017, and 27% growth in podcast listening year-over-year from 2016 to 2017. the idea of First Play is to pull fans into the TuneIn app to hear new episodes earlier than in other apps, funneling them into TuneIn’s extraordinarily broad content platform.