Provided that they can still buy the data, they may decide that the differentiator isn't the proprietary data but the data analysis they put on top of it. In which case owning and acquiring the data is no longer crucial.
Plain-old satellite imagery is starting to become a cost race to the ground. Real sauce is in the analysis - for example look at Orbital Insight or Descartes labs.
Satellite imagery companies try to differentiate by higher resolution or alternative imagery formats like multi-spectral.
Satellite imagery companies try to differentiate by higher resolution or alternative imagery formats like multi-spectral.