A Kyiv Studio Gambles on the Vertical Drama

In the beginning, Holywater was not a TV business. Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov set up the company in 2020 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its product lineup still reads more like a https://www.reelshorts.org/where-to-watch/jude-s-sweet-pursuit/ lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming network. Alongside My Drama sit My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. The spread matters: it points to a company for which video is one of several consumer products, not its entire identity. Ultimately, it made its bet on the vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held upright. The category’s largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups, so moving into this market was a bold move for a small Ukrainian business.

Spring 2024: The My Drama App Arrives

The precise launch date of the My Drama app hinges on which record you believe, but it arrived in spring 2024. According to TechCrunch, the launch happened in April, whereas Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Those store dates indicate that Android came first, with the iPhone version landing about two months later. The opening slate leaned into the genre’s best-loved tropes. The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss were some of the first titles, and the names alone reveal most of what you need to know about the mood. The partner it would soon be making them with, not the stories themselves, is what ultimately set the company apart.

The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby

In October 2025, My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity. Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater, and the deal came with a commitment to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Fox-produced titles on the service include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. A $22M round led by Horizon Capital followed three months later, in January 2026, with Holywater raising the sum. The company additionally has a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, a credential it features on its App Store listing. These milestones, taken together, give My Drama a distinctive asset that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.

The My Drama Fact Sheet

For readers who only have a minute, the table below gives the short version of the story. It collects the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer. The prices are those displayed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all affect them, so read them as a rough guide rather than a quote. Where you live determines the legal entity you contract with, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge. The install count refers to Google Play, where the app shows 5M+ downloads.

How Watching on My Drama Feels

The entire category is built on this same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. Formatted for an upright phone, episodes are vertical, and in this genre they typically run one or two minutes before a cliffhanger nudges you on to the next. Because series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can quietly swallow an evening in small bites. What truly sets this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, listings show it for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. For comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all, so that big-screen option is rarer than you might expect. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, but the option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.

Content-wise, the library mixes Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. The genre’s well-worn formula remains the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make clear. Scale is where the candid caveat comes in. On Google Play the app shows 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap shows where My Drama stands in 2026, as a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.

Pricing: What My Drama Costs in 2026

Holywater sells access in three ways, and the main figure is the weekly pass. As of September 2026, the US App Store prices “My Drama: Full Access” at around $19.99 per week. That puts it in line with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, which are listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin bundles, used to unlock individual episodes, run from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. With a separate Premium tier listed at about $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers have cheaper entry points than the full pass. Prices change by country, platform and promotion, so the figure on your own screen may differ. As with its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it. Run the numbers first: at four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass adds up to roughly $80 a month.

Terms to Read Before You Pay

Most viewers give less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Every coin purchase is final, which means no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. A balance you ignore for a year can simply disappear, as coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, mirroring the consumer rules in those markets. Purchases made on the web are labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say so clearly, which is the most important point of all. iPhone owners cancel under Settings, then their name, then Subscriptions, while Android users go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. When you buy through a store, refunds are processed by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.

It also pays to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. For US users, the counterparty is XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company; everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. One more warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Sites that promise modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial and are not a safe way to watch anything. When the price seems steep, the proper move is to cancel the pass, not to look for a hack.

The Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood

My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and judging by install counts it is not close. What it has instead is an uncommon combination: a Kyiv founding story, a Fox equity partner committed to more than 200 titles, fresh funding from January 2026 and a Webby on the shelf. Viewers get a practical upside in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. The downside is the same one that plagues every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that quietly renews in the background. If the largest claimed library is simply what you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. The My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen if you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV. Either way, create a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.