Urthecast is a Canadian media company that plans to mount cameras on the International Space Station which will stream high-definition video of earth online for public viewing. Their industry is brand new, nobody has undertaken such a bold venture in this field. Some may say that space-mounted cameras are too risky of an investment, and that the costs of the business will greatly exceed the revenue generated. However, the fact that it is mounted on the ISS means that the company can circumvent the large start-up costs associated with launching satellites, which makes the business proposition much more enticing.
In my opinion, one of the most interesting applications of this idea is to the field of journalism. The company is looking to license off high-profile areas to certain news agencies whenever breaking news occurs in that area. For example, UrtheCast could use its cameras to track the effects of natural disasters and then sell the video stream to the highest bidder. Live video of mass protests would also be invaluable to large news companies trying to cover political upheaval in different parts of the world.
The company has also expressed interest in integrating social media into the UrtheCast video stream. This, ideally, would allow real time news updates from social media sites (such as Twitter) to show up when the camera is viewing a specific area. Personally, I see this as being problematic. It is very hard to filter what is on the internet, and the vast majority of what shows up on the live stream will just be useless clutter. Another issue is privacy, as many people wouldn’t like their social media posts to instantly become public.
If UrtheCast is able to overcome these issues, and is able to collect the funding needed to start streaming, then they have a creative and potentially profitable idea that could revolutionize the media industry.
Image Source: https://github.com/urthecast