Coinstar is First to Sign Major Retailer to Gift Card Mall Program in the United Kingdom.

Popular British Retailer WHSmith will carry Gift Card Mall

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSTR) today announced that its subsidiary Coinstar Limited has signed major U.K. retailer WHSmith to its Gift Card Mall program. This well-known retailer is the first major retailer in the United Kingdom to deliver a Gift Card Mall program, initially made popular in the United States.

"By teaming with WHSmith we have access to one of the biggest retail names in Britain," said Steve Verleye, senior vice president and general manager of Coinstar's E-pay services. "The U.K. Gift Card Mall program represents an important new development in Coinstar's U.K. product offering and allows us to share our gift card expertise with WHSmith."

The Gift Card Mall consists of a display rack of popular retailers including department stores, clothing, and electronics, as well as experience cards such as holidays, sporting events, and movie going. The program gives the host retailer an innovative, turnkey product to drive incremental traffic, sales and profits into the store. In addition, it also creates a new way for consumers to buy gifts in the form of gift cards for their friends and family.

The program will launch this month in the U.K. with a nationwide roll-out in more than 540 WHSmith's stores. Additional U.K. retailers are expected to be added to the program over the coming months.

"As leaders in the gift card market it is a logical move for us to sign with Coinstar's Gift Card Mall service. Coinstar's U.S. experience will put WHSmith into an even stronger position to take advantage of this rapidly growing market," said Ian Sanders, Head of Commercial Development at WHSmith.

The U.K. gift card market is expected to grow from [pounds sterling]3 million in 2005 to approximately [pounds sterling]2.1 billion by 2007 (source: Giftex Research 2005).

About WHSmith

WHSmith is made up of 543 high street stores and 129 airport and station stores. The high street business sells a wide range of newspapers, magazines, stationery, books and entertainment products, while WHSmith Travel sells a tailored range of newspapers, magazines, books and confectionery products for people on the move. In addition, WHSmith Direct - www.whsmith.co.uk - serves customers on the internet 24 hours a day.

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, money transfer, 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, financial institutions, drug stores, mass merchants, convenience stores, and restaurants. For more information, visit www.coinstar.com.

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 expected growth in the U.K. Gift Card Mall program and the gift card market, Coinstar, Inc.'s roll-out of the Gift Card Mall program and the benefits to retailers of the Gift Card Mall 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 of the date of this release. Coinstar, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update the information provided herein.