Coinstar E-Payment Program Receives Frost & Sullivan Leadership Award.

Coinstar 4(th) Wall[TM] front-end category management can increase retail profits

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSTR), announced receipt of the 2006 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Leadership for its E-Payment Category Management Program.

The Frost & Sullivan Award focused on Coinstar's 4th Wall(TM) front-of-store management program for prepaid products such as wireless, long distance cards, prepaid cash cards, gift cards, money transfer, and payroll cards. Coinstar's e-payment expertise comes from providing category management and products to 20,000 retail locations, including more than 6,700 self-service supermarket kiosks.

"We help retailers fine tune the right product portfolio, technology platform, merchandising and promotion when they consider prepaid products to drive new profits," said Steve Verleye, senior vice president of Coinstar E-Payment Services.

The Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

"An integrated 4th Wall strategy is a robust system for analyzing retailers' strengths and weaknesses in the front of the store, and making suggestions for additional products and services that can extend the retailer's front-of-store real estate value beyond its conventional role as an afterthought for both retailers and shoppers," said Abhishek Murali, Frost & Sullivan North American Industry Analyst.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost and Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics and demographics. For more information, visit www.awards.frost.com.

About Coinstar, Inc.

Coinstar, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSTR) is a multi-national company offering a range of 4th Wall[TM] solutions for the retailers' front-of-store consisting of self-service coin counting, electronic payment solutions, entertainment services and self-service DVD rental. The company's products and services can be found at more than 60,000 retail locations including supermarkets, drug stores, mass merchants, convenience stores, and restaurants. For more information, visit www.coinstar.com.

Editors Note: Frost & Sullivan Industry analyst Abhishek Murali is available for media interviews through Stacie Jones/Frost & Sullivan North America Corporate Communications, [e-mail].

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "goals," variations of such words, and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. The forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding the benefits of Coinstar's 4th Wall[TM] front-end category management program. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may vary materially from the results expressed or implied in such statements. Differences may result from actions taken by Coinstar, Inc., as well as from risks and uncertainties beyond Coinstar, Inc.'s control. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the effect of and financing of recent acquisitions, the ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, the ability to bring new and repeat customers to Coinstar[R] machines, the ability to obtain new agreements with potential retailers for the installation of Coinstar machines and the retention of the current agreements with our existing retailers on terms that are not materially adverse to Coinstar, Inc., and legal or governmental regulatory action and uncertainties relating to the ultimate success of new business initiatives. The foregoing list of risks and uncertainties is illustrative, but by no means exhaustive. For more information on factors that may affect future performance, please review "Risk Factors" described in Item 1A of Part II of our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements reflect Coinstar, Inc.'s expectations as the date of this release. Coinstar, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update the information provided herein.