What happens to Apple TV accounts when the owner dies

No. Apple's iCloud Terms, Section IV.D, state that the Apple Account is non-transferable and that any rights to the account or the content within it terminate on death. Movies and TV shows bought in the Apple TV app or iTunes sit inside that account, and Apple states that a Legacy Contact cannot reach movies, music, books, or subscriptions purchased with the Apple Account. Apple publishes no estate exception for purchased media. Note that the death provision is in the iCloud Terms; the Apple Media Services Terms that govern the Apple TV app contain no death or survivorship clause.

Yes. The Apple Media Services Terms state that content may be removed from Apple's services at any time, for instance because Apple loses its right from the content provider to make it available, after which it cannot be downloaded, redownloaded, or otherwise accessed from Apple. A movie or show that was "purchased" can become unavailable even within the original account if its licensing lapses, so a purchased Apple TV library is not a permanent holding.

No. A Legacy Contact can reach the deceased's iCloud-stored data, but Apple states that inaccessible data includes movies, music, books, or subscriptions purchased with the Apple Account, along with iCloud Keychain data. A Legacy Contact does not receive the Apple TV subscription or the purchased Apple TV library. Cancelling the subscription is what stops the billing. Apple states that Legacy Contact access to the account's data runs three years from approval of the first request, after which the account is permanently deleted. For full account recovery, see the Apple Account estate guide at /digital-assets/apple/.

Apple states that for security reasons it requires and verifies legal documentation before assisting with a deceased person's account, generally including a death certificate and sometimes a court order or other documentation. Where the deceased designated a Legacy Contact, that contact requests access with the access key plus the death certificate. Where there is no access key, Apple states that in the U.S. access to the account and its data is requested with a court order that names the requester as the rightful inheritor of the deceased's personal information. Documentation requirements vary by country or region.

Start with who is billing the subscription. Apple states that a person cannot cancel a family member's subscription from their own Apple Account, so an executor without the deceased's own signed-in account raises the cancellation with Apple Support, which requires and verifies legal documentation (generally a death certificate) before assisting with a deceased person's account. Where the subscription was billed through Google Play or Amazon rather than Apple, Apple directs the cancellation to that channel. The subscription auto-renews and continues charging the payment method on file until it is cancelled, so the charge continues while the request is pending.