数据巫师欲重塑ESPN叙事方式

    希尔在ESPN能否成功，最后的一个关键就是他的直播风格。ESPN要认真对待风格问题，因为对于观众来说，这在情感上是吸引他们看一个节目与否的关键因素。比如ESPN的一个NBA直播节目“NBA 倒计时”（NBA Countdown）就非常缺乏创意、眼界和风格魅力。这个节目不可避免地要与TNT的“深入NBA”（Inside the NBA）相比，而后者的主持人是著名的“大嘴”巴克利。上个赛季观看由玛吉克•约翰逊、迈克尔•威尔本、贾伦•罗斯和比尔•西蒙斯四个人主持的“NBA倒计时”的时候，给人的感觉就像四个人刚刚在一次活动上认识，然后就一起被困在了电梯里。他们因为相同的原因走到了一起，但是哪也去不了。

    还是把希尔换上来吧。

    电视节目的核心就在于人和人的关系。它既包括友谊也包括摩擦，这正是有些节目吸引观众的原因。《今日秀》（Today Show）、《早安美国》(Good Morning America)、Charles Barkley & Co等节目就充分说明了这一点。现在通过创造性的信息，加上“统计学家”（希尔和西蒙斯）和“老牌主持人”（威尔本和玛吉克）之间的“创新性张力”，ESPN可能有了一个重建这个NBA直播节目的机会。但前提条件是ESPN为希尔和西蒙斯的观点提供充足的制片效果。

    ESPN已经证明了它在某些方面是有创新性的，但是在大数据方面，它还能保持这种创新性吗？

    可能这就是决定ESPN能不能通过希尔“点球成金”的关键。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    The final piece of the Silver puzzle will involve his on-air personality. ESPN needs to think hard about the personal dynamics that are the emotional core of why viewers watch particular shows. Case in point: ESPN's NBA studio show "NBA Countdown," a show that would stand out for its lack of creativity, vision and personality even if it wasn't inevitably compared to TNT's "Inside the NBA" starring Charles Barkley. This past season watching "NBA Countdown" featuring Magic Johnson, Michael Wilbon, Jalen Rose and Bill Simmons (ESPN's most innovative personality—in text) was like watching four guys who had just met at a convention and found themselves stuck together in an elevator. They were all there for the same reason, but they weren't going anywhere.

    Enter Silver. (Please.)

    TV shows at their core are about relationships—both friendship and friction—that's what bonds viewers to them, as the Today Show, Good Morning America, and Charles Barkley & Co. make abundantly clear. ESPN now has a chance to recreate its NBA coverage with creative information, combined with "creative tension" between "The Quants" (Silver and Simmons) and "The Classics" (Wilbon and Magic). (Or as some might eventually call them, the Quants versus the Quaints.) But that will only work if ESPN puts serious production values—and resources—behind both Silver's and Simmons' insights.

    The network has shown that it can be innovative when it comes to coaches X's and O's, but can they be innovative when it comes to zeros and ones?