Netflix profits jumped 26 percent in the last year, while number of subscribers increased 52 percent in the same time period, the company said in a Wednesday earnings report.

The company also said it hopes to offer a streaming-only option in the U.S. in the fourth quarter.

Netflix reported revenue of $553.2 million, a 31 percent increase since last year and a 6 percent jump from last quarter. Profit landed at $38 million, a 26 percent increase from last year.

The company now has 16.9 million subscribers, up 52 percent from the 11.1 million customers it had last year and up 13 percent from the 15 million it had last quarter. Of that 16.9 million, 94 percent are paid subscribers.

Though Netflix still spends between $500 million and $600 million each year mailing its DVDs to customers, chief executive Reed Hastings said its future was streaming.

"By every measure, we are now a streaming company, which also offers DVD-by-mail," he said in a statement. "In Q4, we'll spend more on streaming content than DVD content, and we'll deliver many more hours of entertainment via streaming than on DVD."

The percentage of subscribers who watched streaming content for more than 15 minutes in the third quarter was 66 percent compared to 41 percent a year ago and 61 percent during the last quarter. Given Netflix's shift to streaming, the company said this will be the last quarter it will report percentage of streaming viewers.

Last month, Netflix said it was considering a streaming-only option in the U.S.; it's now available in Canada. "Our success with our pure streaming offering in Canada at $7.99 has encouraged us to test this model in the USA," Hastings said Wednesday. "If our results are as strong as we think they will be, then we will look to start this offering later in this Q4."

"Pure streaming could become our core offering in the USA, and DVD would be offered as a supplement for an additional charge, like we offer Blu-ray today," he continued. "We'll know by the holiday season if consumers would prefer this more streaming-centric approach."

Netflix said the company is "encouraged" by its performance in Canada, but declined to provide exact subscriber rates. If finances permit, Hastings said Netflix will consider moving beyond North America in the second half of 2011.

DVD shipments overall grew about 10 percent, but in some markets – like San Francisco – Netflix is already seeing a decline in DVD shipments in favor of streaming.

"The virtuous cycle for us is: acquire more streaming content which helps grow our subscriber base and lessen our DVD-by-mail expense, which in turn provides us with greater financial resources to acquire more streaming content, improve the user interface and continue to grow the subscriber base," Hastings said.