EO Market to reach $4.5 bn in next decade

A report on satellite based Earth Observation forecasts that data, value-added services and information products markets from earth observation will reach $4.5 billion by 2024. This is almost a 100% jump from $2.3 billion in 2014. The report released by NSR -- a prominent international market research and consulting firm -- says the thriving information products segment will drive the EO market. The industry is transitioning to an era of very-high resolution imagery and increased adoption of big data analytics products in the face of decreasing data prices for medium and high resolution imagery. The market saw a sizable increase of $200 million in 2014 due to an economic recovery. This led to greater expenditure by governments, and a thriving information products segment.

The supply of sub-meter resolution imagery is likely to explode with the launch of multiple small satellite constellations, the report added. This trend will require distribution models to be more efficient and secure and put pressure on pricing of medium- and high-resolution data. At the same time, opportunities will grow with very-high resolution or below 50 cm data for both optical and SAR imagery.
The EO industry is at a point where vast, new, untapped markets could open up. But, this is assuming that the data quality and its ease of use and integration in information products will continually improve to meet requirements of an increasing large and more sophisticated end-user market. The market dynamics in commercial satellite EO point to more consolidation in the near future, as operators try to leverage each other's strengths to better compete for government and commercial market share.