Pioneer Electronics licensed Tivo Inc.'s digital video recording technology for use in consumer entertainment products it plans to release later this year. Tivo draws most of its revenue from subscription fees that users pay for its service to automatically save TV programs and pause live TV programming.

Licensing its technology to companies like Pioneer, a unit of Japan's Pioneer Corp. , improves the chances that users will sign up for Tivo's system, the San Jose, California, company has said.

Tivo counts more than 700,000 users for its service, and Pioneer joins a number of other major licensees like Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp.

Pioneer did not elaborate on the types of devices that would include Tivo. The company makes a wide range of home audio and video products, including televisions and DVD players.