Smart cloud ICT media market projected to reach $29.5 billion by 2034

The migration toward integrated smart cloud environments marks a shift from simple storage to active, AI-enhanced media processing. For the streaming ecosystem, this transition enables real-time content personalization and ultra-low-latency delivery essential for live events and interactive gaming. As vendors navigate data security risks and high legacy migration costs, those offering low-latency edge services and automated metadata tagging will gain a competitive edge. This evolution suggests that infrastructure is no longer a passive utility but a core driver of content monetization. Watch for the growth of edge-node deployments in North America, which remains the largest market for these advanced ICT cloud technologies.

The broader infrastructure landscape confirms a rapid lean into decentralized and automated systems. Per Grand View Research in July 2026, the global edge computing market is valued at $61 billion and is forecast to hit $130 billion by 2030. This growth is mirrored in the media sector, where Gartner estimates that by 2028, 75% of enterprise data will be processed outside traditional centralized data centers. These shifts are fueled by the technical necessity of reducing the 50-100 millisecond round-trip latency typical of centralized cloud regions, which is insufficient for real-time video analytics or immersive AR/VR applications.

Simultaneously, the financial profile of cloud migration has reached a tipping point. Per QualityKiosk in February 2026, AI-driven migration tools are now reducing cycle times by 70% and operational costs by 30%. This automation is critical for legacy media houses facing 80% IT budget consumption by on-premises systems. Fortune Business Insights reported in June 2026 that North America maintains a 52% share of total cloud spending, driven by early adoption of AI-native workloads. Major hyperscalers, including AWS and Google Cloud, have collectively committed over $200 billion to Gen-AI data center infrastructure in 2025 and 2026 alone.

Streaming leaders are already utilizing these architectures to manage record-breaking traffic and complex monetization. Per SymphonyAI in January 2025, the industry moved from "walled gardens" to co-exclusive licensing and hybrid distribution models that require high-performance, interoperable cloud pipelines. Furthermore, Digital i reported in January 2026 that ad-supported tier usage on Netflix reached 40% of active accounts, supported by the type of AI-powered SaaS analytics and dynamic ad insertion mentioned in the Intel Research report. This highlights that smart cloud infrastructure is now the prerequisite for scaling ad-supported revenue and managing global subscriber engagement.