Coinstar, the parent company of DVD-vending company Redbox, reported third-quarter earnings yesterday, with the unit’s revenues up 90 percent to $198.1 million. The company also added 2,700 kiosks during the quarter, bringing its total DVD kiosk count to 20,600 nationwide.

Revenue growth for Coinstar’s latest quarter actually slowed from previous quarters this year, as the LA Times points out. The company’s revenue grew 110 percent in the second quarter and 155 percent in the first quarter.

But, growth is growth, especially when it comes at a time when DVD and Blu-ray sales have dropped and home entertainment revenues are depressed.

Redbox’s growth probably won’t ease the heat the company is feeling from some Hollywood studios, which are none too happy about the kiosks’ cheapo dollar-a-night movie rentals. But not everyone is against Redbox; the company recently signed distribution deals with Summit Entertainment and NCircle Entertainment.

Redbox has also started experimenting with higher rental prices in select markets, in a move that could be an olive branch to grumbling studios, or a way to maintain revenue growth.

And just a reminder that we’ll be chatting with Redbox SVP of Marketing and Customer Experience Gary Cohen at next week’s NewTeeVee Live conference. If you act quick, there’s a $50 discount going on tickets until 5 p.m. PT today.

Apple is recruiting TV networks to go in on an iTunes TV subscription offering, according to Peter Kafka at MediaMemo. For $30 per month starting “early next year,” users would be able to watch episodes via iTunes. This is actually something that had been suggested to the company by prolific Apple prognosticator Gene Munster, who recommended in August that Apple charge $30 to $40 for a sub-library of its TV shows in order to recruit customers away from their $85-plus per month cable bills.

Could Steve Jobs actually be implementing advice from the hoi polloi? Maybe. A TV subscription product actually sounds promising given that iTunes already has an established business of selling digital content delivered over the Internet — TV episodes, even! — so it’s out in front of “TV Everywhere” Hulu-like sites for paying subscribers of cable companies and other TV operators, as well as Hulu itself.

But on the other hand, iTunes today sells downloads, and only downloads. Few people seem to care about owning TV episodes, unless you’re talking multi-season boxed and special-featured DVD sets. Meanwhile, on-demand streaming is by far the dominant method of consuming TV, especially as distributors delve into HD and adaptive bitrate streaming. And iTunes’ sales numbers are actually not that big, with some public stats only showing tens of thousands of downloads per TV episode.

Further, there’s no word on when episodes would be available and for what windows — but then no networks have actually signed on yet. Kafka suggests Disney, due to its close relationship with Apple via Jobs, could be the first to join. But if iTunes wants to go from a la carte to subscription, it really need to have an excellent stock of current content from everyone in the business.