The annual revenue from console games in 2005 totaled more than $10 billion, which famously exceeded the value of tickets sold by U.S. movie theaters last year. However, unlike the gaming industry, the film business is able to reach additional channels for content distribution beyond the box office, which constitutes 25 percent of overall revenue. The gaming industry is keenly interested in cultivating such additional channels of venue for their content.

On-line gaming over the broadband network is becoming an important service feature of the video entertainment bundle, which carriers are working to deploy. Indeed, one recent survey indicated that more than 50 percent of on-line game enthusiast households are interested in such a service from their broadband carriers.

This session will examine the business potential for games-on-demand services as part of a triple-play offering. We will look at the demand for such applications, revenue models, and case studies to date in making on-line gaming a reality. We will also look at the impact on existing networks, services management, and the kind of systems evolution necessary for a gaming-on-demand offering.

Yoav Tzruya Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Exent Technologies

As chief marketing officer, Mr. Tzruya is in charge of Exent's strategy, marketing, product management, and marketing for strategic business development and corporate development. With more than 15 years of experience in software development and marketing, Mr. Tzruya is a recognized industry expert in the fields of broadband value-added services and business support systems. He was previously chief operating officer of Exent, in charge of managing the company's global operations, including marketing, R&D, technical operations, and new business development.

Guillermo Franco Director, South and Central Americas Electronic Arts

Mr. Franco is responsible for all business within the South and Central America regions for Electronic Arts. He leads the marketing, sales, operations, and financial areas to redefine and implement new business activities for the company. Previously, Mr. Franco was the marketing superintendent of Internet residential business at Telefonica, leading the marketing team responsible for the development of Internet business strategies, generating annual revenues of more than R$ 600mm. He was also commercial superintendent of residential broadband services at Telefonica.

Mansoor Malik Senior Engineering Manager Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Mansoor Malik has 15 years of experience in the high-technology industry, working on a wide range of technologies. He is currently working on a carrier-grade VoD and nPVR system that integrates storage, streaming, and switching capabilities. He previously worked at Nortel Networks, where he was involved with ATM/frame relay switches, network management systems, and VoIP systems.

Luis Miguel Silva Director, Technology Evaluation and Knowledge Dissemination Portugal Telecom Inovação

Mr. Silva currently researches IPTV services and new interactivity paradigms for networked audiovisual systems, home platforms, and terminals. He has been a telecommunications engineer at Portugal Telecom Inovação since 1981, working in development projects in the areas of digital switching, intelligent networks, and network management. Mr. Silva has also been involved in the participation and coordination of international ICT research projects in the context of European Community initiatives. He has a degree in electronic and telecommunications engineering from the University of Aveiro and a master's in business management by ISCTE, Lisboa.

Jim Slevinsky Director, Application Architecture, Technology Strategy TELUS Communications

Mr. Slevinsky leads a team of senior technical consultants tasked with determining the network and application architectures for future TELUS services. In his 18 years at TELUS, he has had active roles in the voice network special services, R&D, network standards, strategy, and network architecture groups. In addition, during a stint at TRLabs as an industrial researcher, Mr. Slevinsky was a key contributor to a team developing RingBuilder™ network design software, and he holds a patent for this work.