Watch out, Apple (AAPL: sentiment, chart, options); your Apple TV could be just a few corporate deals away from being obsolete. You may have heard of Netflix's (NFLX: sentiment, chart, options) entry into the set-top player market by allowing the Roku Digital Video Player access to its online rental service. For the record, Roku is a California-based company that produces a $99 set-top box designed to stream video content from the web. Upping the ante for Apple, Roku just signed a deal with Amazon.com (AMZN: sentiment, chart, options) to stream content from its video-on-demand service, which includes a slew of TV shows and movies.

For their part, AMZN and NFLX look extremely attractive from a contrarian perspective at the moment. NFLX has rallied sharply from its November lows along the support of its 10-day and 20-day moving averages, while short interest accounts for more than 34% of its float and 7 of the 10 analysts following the shares rate them a "hold" or worse. Meanwhile, 11% of AMZN's float is sold short and 14 of the 17 brokerage firms covering the stock rate it a "hold" or worse, despite the stock's strong rebound from its November lows.

That said, AMZN investors will want to keep a close eye on resistance at the stock's 20-week moving average, while NFLX is once again challenging former resistance in the 32 region. Should either of these technical hurdles fall, we could see AMZN and NFLX extend their recent rallies.

In the meantime, Apple investors will want to keep a very close eye on privately held Roku. The company's Roku Digital Video Player already rivals Apple TV with its on-demand selection from Netflix and Amazon.com. All the company needs now is access to Internet sites like YouTube, Hulu.com, and the network sites (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox), and Apple's pet project could be headed for the dust bin. Without a backend store like iTunes to worry about, Roku has considerably more freedom to move in this direction.