Redbox expands kiosk presence at Walgreens

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DVD kiosk provider Redbox Automated Retail LLC on Wednesday said it reached a deal to place DVD rental kiosks in more than 2,000 Walgreen Co stores, expanding its total retail presence industrywide to over 11,000 locations in the United States.

Redbox, owned by Coinstar Inc, McDonald's Corp and private investors, said it will install about 1,800 additional kiosks at Walgreens stores in 2008 and 2009, in addition to the 250 currently available at Walgreens.

The Walgreens deal follows closely on a similar agreement to install about 2,700 Redbox kiosks in Wal-Mart Stores Inc, beginning in 2008, the company said.

Prior to the addition of these combined 4,500 Wal-Mart and Walgreens kiosks in 2008, Redbox kiosks were already available at about 6,800 locations, including some grocery stores, McDonald's restaurants, Walgreens and Wal-Mart stores.

Each automated Redbox kiosk holds more than 500 DVDs, representing 100 to 150 of new movie releases, with new titles available every Tuesday.

Using a touch screen, customers rent DVDs for $1 per night. After 25 nights, rental charges cease and the DVD is the customer's to keep.

Redbox also allows customers to rent DVDs at one location and return them to any Redbox nationwide.

(Reporting by Sue Zeidler, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)