L'expertise et le conseil au cœur du métier
Start ReelShort Premiere Now What to Expect
A Kyiv Studio Bets on the Vertical Drama
TV was not where Holywater got its start. Back in 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the company in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its range of products even now looks more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming platform. Next to My Drama are My reelshort Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. The spread matters: it reveals a business for which video is one of several consumer products, not its entire identity. The gamble it eventually made was on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is composed 9:16 for an upright phone. The groups behind the category’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, making this a bold market for a small Ukrainian company to enter.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Goes Live
The exact launch date of the My Drama app depends on which source you trust, but the app arrived in spring 2024. The launch date varies by source: TechCrunch placed it in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Those store dates suggest that Android launched first, with the iPhone version landing about two months later. The initial slate was heavily built around the genre’s favorite tropes. Most of what you need to know about the mood comes through in early titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss. The partner it would soon be producing them with, not the stories themselves, is what eventually set the company apart.
A Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
The month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity was October 2025. Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater, in a deal that included a commitment to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Horizon Capital led a $22M round in Holywater three months later, in January 2026. Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside are among the Fox-produced titles on the app. A Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025 also belongs to the company, which displays it on its App Store listing. These milestones, taken together, give My Drama a rare advantage that few rivals can claim: a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: The Fact File
If you only have a minute, the table below gives you the condensed version of the story. It collects in one place the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. As of September 2026, the prices match the ones shown in the US App Store. As they differ by country, platform and promotion, read them as a rough guide rather than a quote. If you ever need to challenge a charge, it matters that the legal entity you deal with depends on where you live. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is what the install figure refers to.
| Category | Specifics |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Legal entity for other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch date | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Android installs | 5M+ via Google Play |
| Full-access plan | Roughly $19.99 a week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packages | Around $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | Around $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio backer | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Investment | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | Webby Award, Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
The My Drama Viewing Experience
The whole category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. Episodes are vertical and sized for an upright phone; in this genre they usually last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger nudges you on to the next one. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, one story can quietly swallow an evening in bite-sized pieces. What truly sets this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. It is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro, beyond iPhone, iPad and Android. That big-screen option is rarer than you might expect, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. Granted, a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, yet the option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the library, which blends the two. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession demonstrate that the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s familiar formula. The honest caveat here is scale. On Google Play the app shows 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap makes clear where My Drama stands in 2026, as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: What My Drama Costs in 2026
Access is sold three ways, and the key figure is the weekly pass. In the US App Store as of September 2026, « My Drama: Full Access » runs about $19.99 per week. ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort list their weekly passes at about the same price in the same store, so the app sits level with them. At about $4.99 to $24.99, coin packs unlock individual episodes. Lighter viewers have cheaper entry points than the full pass, because a separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99. The weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it, just like its rivals’ plans. The figure on your own device may differ, because prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Before committing, run the numbers: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total about $80 a month.
The Terms to Understand Before You Pay
The terms of use for My Drama include fine print worth more attention than most viewers give it. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. Also, coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. Whatever you buy on the web is described as non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say so plainly, which is the most important point of all. iPhone owners cancel under Settings, then their name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Holywater does not handle refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google does.
It is also useful to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. Everyone outside the US contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus, while US users contract with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company. As with any vertical drama app, another warning applies here. 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 feels steep, the legitimate move is to cancel the pass, not to hunt for a hack.
The Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood
By install counts, My Drama is not even close to being the largest vertical drama app. Rather, it offers 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. ReelShort, for one, does not list Apple TV support, which makes it the practical advantage for My Drama viewers. The downside is the same one that plagues every rival, namely a weekly pass of about $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. 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. For viewers who simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax and its 50,000+ dramas are the more obvious pick. Either way, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and create a reminder the day you subscribe.