It certainly is up to them. They negotiated a contract with the content producers that did not allow for that, and could have negotiated a different contract that did by offering more.
If they didn't want to continue serving the film until the heat death of the universe, then that's what they should have done differently, rather than just unilaterally screwing over all the buyers.
That's not their only other choice. They could also let you download the content so you're not dependent on them forever to watch it.