Netflix gained more subscribers than expected in the US and worldwide with help from original series like "Orange is the New Black," impressing investors.
They sent the company's shares surging nearly 11% to a record high last night.
Netflix quadrupled profit in the third quarter as it added a higher-than-expected 1.3 million customers to its subscription video streaming service in the US.
The company, which has invested heavily in original series such as political satire "House of Cards," said it had 31.1 million US streaming users from July to September.
For the last three months of the year, Netflix said it expects to add about the same number of US streaming customers it signed up a year earlier, and will end 2013 with 32.7 million to 33.5 million users.
During the quarter, Netflix released critically acclaimed prison drama "Orange is the New Black," part of its push into original programming to attract customers to its movie and TV streaming service.
The company said it will double investments in original programming in 2014, when it will air second seasons of both "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black." Spending onoriginal shows will remain below 10% of its global content expenses.
Netflix was added in September as an option on cable set-top boxes through two companies in Europe. Chief executive Reed Hastings, in a webcast after the earnings release, said he was "hopeful" Netflix could reach a similar deal with Comcast Corp or other US cable operators.
The company said it added 1.4 million customers in international markets, bringing its reach globally to 9.2 million, and said it will launch in unspecified new countries next year.
Netflix reported earnings-per-share of 52 cents, beating the average of 49 cents projected by Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Net income for the quarter reached $32m, up from $8m a year earlier, Hastings and chief financial officer David Wells said in a letter to shareholders.
Ten years ago, Netflix was the highest-performing stock on the Nasdaq when it was delivering video only through DVDs mailed in red envelopes, a business from which it is now moving away.
At that time, "we had solid results compounded by momentum-investor-fueled euphoria," Hastings and Wells said intheir letter. "Some of the euphoria today feels like 2003."
