Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that while he expects the company’s subscribers to hit the 10 million-mark by next year, the mail order side of the DVD rental company’s business will peak in as soon as five years, according to Reuters. During a presentation at Netflix’s investor day, Hastings said:

“Our key challenge is growing earnings per share and subscribers while funding streaming (online video) which should give us years of subscriber and earnings expansion.”

Netflix made its first moves into the living room last week with the release of its Roku streaming device, and have other set-top boxes on the way. But as we seem to have written a lot in the past couple of days, competition in the movie delivery space is fierce, with cable and satellite VOD services (especially with tru2way), as well as set-top box competitors like TiVo, Apple TV and now Amazon, which has announced that it will be offering a PPV streaming service in the coming weeks.