Coinstar Inc's Redbox on Thursday ended legal disputes and reached distribution pacts with Universal Studios and Twentieth Century Fox in the latest sign that Hollywood is warming to the DVD kiosk operator that it has accused of depressing prices.
Under the deals with News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox and General Electric Co's Universal, Redbox must wait 28 days after a DVD or Blu-ray disc's release to offer them to its customers.
Redbox struck a similar deal with Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros in February, also ending a legal dispute.
The first Fox release covered under the new agreement is Avatar, Redbox said in a statement.
Studios have accused Redbox of undercutting DVD sales by renting them for $1 a day from its 22,400 kiosks, and have threatened to withhold titles.
Redbox sued Fox and Universal for restricting access to their new-release DVDs. Renting DVDs from bright-red automated kiosks nationwide helped Coinstar's DVD service revenue double to $774 million last year, from $388 million in 2008.
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