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Netflix Inc. [stckqut]NFLX[/stckqut] reported disappointing U.S. subscriber growth for the third quarter, as net profit declined on higher costs for content and expansion.

The streaming-video provider added 880,000 domestic subscribers, below the 1.15 million subscribers it projected in July and a slowdown from the addition of 980,000 customers in the year-earlier quarter. Overseas, the company signed up more users than it expected, adding 2.74 million subscribers compared with a forecast of 2.4 million.

Netflix attributed the downshift in the U.S., in part, to involuntary service cancellations tied to the company’s inability to process payments from subscribers whose credit and debit cards were changed to chip-based technology.

U.S. banks are replacing hundreds of millions of credit cards and debit cards with new plastic that has a computer chip as well as a traditional magnetic strip on the back. The chip adds security by creating a unique code for each transaction.

Source: Netflix Subscriber Growth Disappoints in U.S.

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Business is booming for companies that lease out storage units to consumers. Rents are rising, most units are occupied, and competition is tame due to limited new construction in the wake of the financial crisis, storage executives and analysts say.

Investors are bidding up the shares of industry leaders such as Extra Space Storage Inc. [stckqut]EXR[/stckqut], whose stock is up 33% through Monday in a year when many other commercial real-estate firms have been hit hard and the broader S&P 500 is down 2%. Evercore ISI last week boosted its price targets for Extra Space Storage stock and the shares of two rivals.

Large investment firms also are trying to cash in, with Carlyle Group LP spending about $80 million to help build new facilities in Southern California, the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere, and Harrison Street Capital LLC considering selling storage properties it snapped up in recent years.

Source: Need to Store That? Booming Self-Storage Industry Says No Problem