The Total Entertainment Network (TEN), one of the first Internet-oriented pay-for-play online gaming services, announced Monday that it had secured US$30 million in funding from a new bevy of investors, including Liberty Digital and Nokia Ventures.

　　TEN will use the funding to expand its marketing base, sales staff, and distribution roster. The funding will also provide the company with the framework for working with upcoming leaders in broadband and handheld technologies, so it can get a leg up on its ever-increasing competition in the online gaming service market - or so it hopes.

　　"The World Wide Web as we know it today is just the beginning for online, interactive entertainment," said Erick Hachenburg, president and CEO of TEN. "With the coming emergence of broadband and handheld connectivity devices, new markets for 'family content' are opening up. With the addition of Liberty Digital and Nokia Ventures, TEN is positioned as the early leader in targeting those platforms."

　　Nokia Ventures is a venture-capital fund affiliated with telecommunications giant Nokia; Liberty Digital invests and helps develop new Internet and interactive media for Liberty Media Corporation.