Posting a 22 percent jump in its net income during the second quarter, the biggest US mail-order movie service, Netflix Inc., has raised its forecast for further profit as well as subscriber growth in 2009.

The Los Gatos, California-based Netflix, which intends increasing its spending on licensing content to stream movies and TV shows on the Internet, recently reported a $32.4 million - 54 cents per share - second-quarter net profit, vis-à-vis the same quarter earlier year profit of $26.6 million, or 42 cents per share.

So far as subscription is concerned, Netflix increased membership, despite the recession, offering prices beginning at $8.99 for unlimited movies streamed over the Web, along with one DVD rental at a time.  

The Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said recently that the company – which presently offers movies from Liberty Media Corp.’s Starz - is looking at expansion in usage of its online streaming service, by transmitting programs from HBO, Showtime and the planned Epix premium cable channels.

Hastings also said that Netflix intends making its service available on some more consumer-electronics devices this year, over and above the current devices like - TiVo’s digital-video recorder; Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video-game console; and Samsung Electronics’s Blu-ray disc players.

Hastings specified: “We’re making substantial investments in streaming because we see a substantial opportunity over the next several years.”