Dreamtime

Dreamtime planned to provide HDTV cameras and connectivity to the ISS in exchange for the rights to a certain amount of on-orbit astronaut time for example to make weather announcements.

Created: 2023-07-19

Updated: 2023-09-16

Company - Dreamtime

Founded
Country: 2000; USA

Funding: Yes, ?

Product/Service

Classification: Miscellaneous

Category: Space Entertainment

Status: Dormant

First launch: Dormant

The 1998 Commercial Space Act paved the way for the agreement between NASA and Dreamtime. In that act, Congress declared commercial utilization to be one of the primary goals of the U.S. Space Station Program and directed NASA to actively seek commercial users for the ISS.

In its first "Space Act" Agreement, NASA entered into a contract with Dreamtime Holdings, Inc. ("Dreamtime"), through which Dreamtime would provide certain HDTV cameras and connectivity to the ISS in exchange for the rights to a certain amount of on-orbit astronaut time, and the rights to digitize the NASA archives.• NASA was to receive 25 percent of the stock issued by Dreamtime pursuant to an Initial Public Offering ("IPO"), an event that has not taken place as of June 1, 2001.

Dreamtime has made some use of the astronauts onboard the ISS to make weather announcements for The Weather Channel, as well as providing the opening sequence for the 2001 Academy Awards show, where host Steve Martin appeared to be jettisoned out an airlock from ISS, to appear on stage at the telecast. Dreamtime has been stymied, however, by NASA regulations which preclude the appearance of astronauts in television commercials, discussed in more detail below.

Dreamtime also has failed to deliver the HDTV cameras required under its agreement with NASA, and, in fact, has had to "borrow" NASA's own cameras for astronaut training. In a May 18, 2001, report to the NASA Administrator, the Inspector General's office found significant problems with the way the Dreamtime Agreement was being implemented, and called on NASA to provide significantly more oversight of Dreamtime's activities.

Space dreams (2001, May, Streaming Media)

Last summer, a breakthrough partnership was announced between NASA and Dreamtime, a Silicon Valley holdings company. Dreamtime agreed to digitize part of the agency's vast media archive — including 10 million feet of film and 40,000 hours of videotape — to provide on-demand and pay-per-view video clips at Dreamtime.com.

In addition, the pair will embark on programs to set up live, high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasts from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the International Space Station (ISS). Dreamtime agreed to buy all the camera equipment for the ISS at an estimated cost of up to $100 million.This first-ever, public-private partnership for NASA was a result of a milestone piece of legislation, the 1998 Commercial Space Act. After soliciting offers for a multimedia partnership, NASA received bids from 11 other companies, including the Discovery Channel, Space Visions International and Space.com.

Dreamtime was founded by two former executives from Excite@Home just weeks before the NASA announcement. The non-exclusive contract runs seven years, with a rolling agreement beyond that.

Dreamtime's appeal to NASA lay in its revenue-generating potential for the agency. "They were an unknown entity," says Rodney Grubbs, chairman of NASA's digital television working group. "But the NASA board felt the potential for financial return might be worth the risk involved."

That financial potential remains unclear. Through a gain-sharing agreement, 25 percent of Dreamtime's shares will be set aside for NASA. By law, the agency cannot own any of the shares and does not have any controlling interest, says Bill Foster, CEO of Dreamtime. But the contract guarantees that Dreamtime provide NASA the price of those shares. If, indeed, Dreamtime files for an IPO — a decision that is at least two years away, says Foster — NASA could reap the benefits with the shares' increased value.
The first HDTV camera is set to be connected on the ISS this July. Subsequent missions will set up other cameras, while plans to provide views from inside Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers remain on hold.

Because it owns the cameras, Dreamtime holds the commercial rights to all footage recorded on the ISS. The company hopes such footage could prove profitable with pay-per-view models on its site. Although, says Foster, NASA is able to use any footage it wants for education, news and non-commercial purposes.
As for the archived NASA footage, Dreamtime is at least six months away from providing any streaming video on its site. Still, officials with the company remain optimistic that the response from viewers will be positive, once the video archive is up.

Others aren't so sure the viewer response will be so enthusiastic. "People have overestimated the market potential for viewing space-related content online," says Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee and purveyor of the watchdog site NASAwatch.com. "You can't necessarily equate box office sales of Star Wars movies to what audiences will watch online."

All Space, All the Time (2001, Smithsonian Magazine)

A new venture called Dreamtime finds itself in much the same predicament. The San Francisco-based company owes its existence to NASA’s desire to have someone else take over much of its multimedia service, including digitizing its vast photo collection. Shrewdly merging the worlds of Silicon Valley and NASA, Dreamtime won a highly prized contract last year to partner with NASA on a range of products, including television programs.

The newly formed company beat out 12 others, including space.com, largely on the strength of its track record in the new economy (the founders had created the Excite@Home Web site). Dreamtime promised to invest up to $100 million on such innovations as high-definition TV, and claimed it would provide the public with its most detailed pictures yet of the space station.
More than a year later, the project remained in the development stages, and NASA’s inspector general was asking rude questions about whether the whole deal was too favorable to Dreamtime. Some speculate it will never happen.

Dan Tam, NASA’s commercialization czar, understands the pessimism. “They should be skeptical,” he says. “This is a startup, and there’s no guarantee it will be successful.” Bill Foster, Dreamtime’s CEO, remains hopeful. In fact, to feel his salesman’s energy and enthusiasm is to wonder if the doubters have ever spent any time in his company. “It’s our belief that space can be turned into education and entertainment and be profitable too,” he says. He points to a television program Dreamtime is developing, an “incredible kids’ show” with characters who can “interact with you in real-time. You may call this educational. Somebody may call it a game show or a video game or whatever…. There are no boundaries. Why should there be?” The program will air on NASA Television, he says. Eight or nine other Dreamtime projects are in the works, ranging from documentaries to TV game shows. For Foster, and for NASA too, the programs are more than just entertainment; they’re promotional tools. “The question,” says Foster, “is how are we gonna get a generation of kids who never saw Neil Armstrong and who play video games all day to see the importance of space and science?”

Sources

Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2001/01-158.txt

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