• Loading stock data...
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Tuned In returns to NYC on September 16. Hear from the biggest names in sports media. Click here to get your spot

Yankees RSN Brings Back an Old TV Staple: Saturday Morning Cartoons

  • The Yankees-controlled RSN and Tzero Studios develop an original, baseball-themed animated series.
  • Team branding will not be involved, but the show will seek a distinct sense of place.

So much about the business of regional sports networks is centered on prime-time broadcasts of games, leaving daytime programming in markets as a particularly thorny challenge. But the YES Network is turning to a traditional television staple: Saturday morning cartoons.

The Yankees-controlled RSN has struck a deal with global animation developer Tzero Studios to create Bronx Buds, a baseball-themed series based around a fictitious Bronx-based, school-age baseball team called the Pinstripes. 

Bronx Buds will involve seven-minute episodes airing on the YES app, with new content every Saturday morning starting Aug. 17. The decision to focus distribution of the project to mobile was based in part on extending a YES Network focus on the app since the product’s 2021 debut that has been buttressed with a deep slate of other original content. That strategy is also a modern-day recall to television before the proliferation of cable in the 1980s, when Saturday morning cartoons were a fixture of network programming.

Not Like Other RSNs

YES Network, meanwhile, has been somewhat insulated from the broader RSN industry issues given its existence within the Yankees corporate umbrella. To that end, network executives said Bronx Buds is also an extension of its history of aggressive moves into many other broadcast technology and programming innovations. 

“We’re already set apart from the other [RSNs], so this is another move to be on the leading edge,” Jason Feneque, YES Network senior director of distribution and special projects, tells Front Office Sports

The network sold a presenting sponsorship to cookware brand HexClad to aid in the development of Bronx Buds. Tzero Studios, meanwhile, has personnel with credits on other major animated series such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Hey Arnold!

A Yankees Feel to It

Bronx Buds will not involve any Yankees branding, but the series still seeks to give a distinct sense of place between the Pinstripes team name and Bronx setting, and area-specific references such as the borough’s famed Arthur Avenue and the subway. Storylines will involve themes of teamwork, friendship, and promoting a love of baseball as YES Network seeks to build its youth audience.

The show is premiering in the middle of baseball season. But both sides have already committed to a second season, and Tzero Studios did not rule out trying to link the project with the YES Network’s other key source of live programming, the NBA’s Nets.

“Who’s to say the Bronx Buds don’t eventually traverse to Brooklyn to play basketball?” Justin Shenkarow, the voice of Harold Berman on Hey Arnold! and Tzero Studios cofounder, tells FOS

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Cubs Land 2027 MLB All-Star Game After Lengthy Pursuit

MLB will bring the Midsummer Classic to one of baseball’s cherished ballparks.
Carlos Correa
exclusive

Twins Moving Toward Selling Team After Deadline Teardown

Minnesota moved about 40% of its roster ahead of the trade deadline.
Jul 26, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) walks to the dugout after the ninth inning against the Washington Nationals at Target Field.

MLB’s Biggest Buyers in Frantic Deadline Weren’t Top Markets

Teams besides the Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees dominate MLB’s trade deadline.
Bristol Motor Speedway

MLB’s Long Road to Its Most Unusual Game Yet

The special-event game features a unique blending of baseball and racing.

Featured Today

Coco Gauff at New York Liberty

How the New York Liberty Became the Hottest Ticket in Town

Once banished to the burbs, the Libs are now Brooklyn’s marquee attraction.
Las Vegas sign
July 29, 2025

College Sports Embracing Vegas After Years of Cold Shoulder

The Big Ten became the latest newcomer to Sin City.
2000, Jupiter, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Montreal Expos pitcher Hideki Irabu in action on the mound against the New York Mets at Roger Dean Stadium during Spring Training
July 28, 2025

Dead Sports Franchises Are Alive and Well on Twitter

The Expos, Sonics, and Whalers have active social media accounts.
Limited Hype
July 27, 2025

Sneaker Reselling Was Once Easy Money. Success Is Now Complicated

Vendors need to evolve what they’re selling and how they do it.
Jul 15, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts to the crowd as they take on the Connecticut Sun in the first quarter at TD Garden.

WNBA Viewership Up Across All Networks Compared to 2024

Non-Fever games are up 37% compared to the full 2024 season.
Jul 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Sky guard Kia Nurse (11) drives to the basket against Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) during the second half at United Center.
July 29, 2025

Fever-Sky Draws 1.5M Viewers Despite Clark, Reese Absences

Clark and Reese both missed the game due to injury.
NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace (23) celebrates winning Sunday, July 27, 2025, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
July 30, 2025

Amazon, TNT Post Near-Identical NASCAR Ratings in Debut Season

The cable channel is a new media-rights partner this season.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

Dealmaker Jeffrey Kaplan maps the evolution of sports as an asset class
July 29, 2025

WBD Restructuring Shows What’s Old Is New Again

WBD will become Warner Bros. and Discovery Global as two separate entities.
HAPPY GILMORE 2. BTS - (L to R) Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore and Rory McIlroy as himself on the set of Happy Gilmore2.
July 26, 2025

‘Cool As Hell’: How ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Hooked Golf’s Top Stars

The process was “cool as hell,” Adam Sandler tells FOS.
July 24, 2025

CBS Sports to Get New Owner As Skydance Merger Clears FCC Hurdle

The long-awaited, but highly debated, merger gains regulatory approval.
Dec 7, 2024; New York, New York, USA; A general view of Times Square during the MLS Cup Times Square Watch Party prior to the game between the LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls.
July 24, 2025

MLS Reveals Apple TV Streaming Numbers, Raising Questions

The league gives a rare glimpse inside the high-profile streaming pact.