The Vertical Drama Gamble of a Kyiv Studio

In the beginning, Holywater was not a TV company. In 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming platform. My Drama shares the portfolio with Connor Reed: The Most Powerful Arms Dealer drama My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That breadth is telling: it points to a business for which video is one of several consumer products, not its entire identity. The bet it eventually made was on the vertical drama, a format that originated in China as duanju and is composed 9:16 for an upright phone. For a small Ukrainian company, this was a brave market to enter, since the sector’s leading names were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.

Spring 2024: The My Drama App Launches

Spring 2024 brought the arrival of the My Drama app, though the precise date depends on which source you trust. Google Play shows March 13, 2024, the App Store lists May 9, 2024, and TechCrunch dated the launch in April. Those store dates imply that Android launched first, with the iPhone version following about two months later. At launch, the slate leaned hard on the genre’s go-to tropes. Early titles included The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that show most of what you need to know about the tone. It was not the stories themselves that ultimately set the company apart, but the partner it would soon be producing them with.

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

My Drama stopped being just a startup curiosity in October 2025. Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater, in a deal that included a commitment to make 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. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater secured $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. The company also has a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a distinction it shows off on its App Store listing. These milestones, taken together, hand My Drama a distinctive asset that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.

My Drama Fact File

For readers who only have a moment, the table below gives the condensed version of the story. It collects the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer. All prices come from the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all change them, so read them as a guide rather than a quote. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is the store the install figure refers to. Where you live decides the legal entity you deal with, something that is relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge.

What Watching on My Drama Feels Like

The core experience mirrors the one the entire category is built on. Episodes are vertical and framed for an upright phone; in this genre they usually last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger pushes you on to the next one. A single story can quietly consume an evening in short bites, since series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. This drama app really distinguishes itself in the range of screens it supports. In addition to iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. By comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all, so that big-screen option is less common than you might think. The option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together, even though a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television.

In terms of content, the library mixes Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession demonstrate that the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s established formula. Here, the candid caveat is scale. On Google Play the app lists 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.

My Drama Pricing in 2026

Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass is the headline figure. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” costs about $19.99 a week. This places it on par with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, each listed at about the same price in the same store. From roughly $4.99 to $24.99, coin packs open up individual episodes. A separate Premium tier is listed at about $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass. The figure on your own screen may differ, because prices vary by country, platform and promotion. The weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it, like its rivals’ plans. Do the math before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total roughly $80 a month.

The Terms to Understand Before You Pay

The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use warrants more attention than most viewers give it. There is no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it, as coin purchases are final. A balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish, because coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. Except where the law requires otherwise, purchases made on the web are described as non-refundable. A 14-day right of withdrawal covers viewers in the EU and UK, reflecting the consumer rules in those markets. The most important point is this: the terms say clearly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. Android users go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play, while on an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions. Holywater does not process refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google handles them.

It also pays to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. If you are in the US, the contracting party 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 promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial, and they are not a safe way to watch anything. The legitimate move to a steep price is to cancel the pass, not to look for a hack.

Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner

On install counts, My Drama is not even close to being the biggest vertical drama app. Rather, it offers an unusual 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 catch is the same one that dogs every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice if you simply want the largest claimed library. For Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. In both cases, set a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.