How a Kyiv Studio Wagered on the Vertical Drama

The company called Holywater did not begin its life as a TV outfit. In 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov set up the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its lineup to this day looks more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming platform. My Drama is listed alongside My Passion for books, My Muse chinese short drama for AI and FreeBits. It matters that the lineup is this broad, because it reveals a business that sees video as one of several consumer products rather than its whole identity. In the end, it put its wager on the vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for an upright phone. The sector’s largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups, so moving into this market was a daring step for a small Ukrainian business.

Spring 2024 and the Arrival of the My Drama App

The exact launch date of the My Drama app depends on which record you believe, but it launched in spring 2024. TechCrunch dated the launch in April, Google Play gives March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. The gap between those store dates hints that Android came first and the iPhone version came about two months later. From the start, the slate leaned hard on the genre’s best-loved tropes. Initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss reveal most of what you need to know about the tone just by their names. It was not the stories themselves that ultimately made the studio stand out, but the partner it would soon be producing them with.

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

My Drama ceased to be just a startup curiosity in October 2025. Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater, with an agreement that included a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. The service hosts Fox-produced titles including Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater raised $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. The company also has a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a distinction it displays on its App Store listing. Few rivals can boast what these milestones give My Drama, namely a big American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.

My Drama Fact File

The quick version of the story sits in the table below, for readers who only have a minute. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a first-time viewer are pulled together in one place. As of September 2026, the prices are those shown in the US App Store. Read them as a rough guide rather than a firm quote, since they differ by country, platform and promotion. On Google Play, the source of the install figure, the app shows 5M+ downloads. Which legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, a point that becomes relevant if you ever need to contest a charge.

How Watching on My Drama Feels

The basic experience is the one the entire category is built on. Episodes are vertical and sized for a phone held upright; in this genre they generally run a minute or two, and then a cliffhanger pushes you toward the next one. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can quietly swallow an evening in short bites. The drama app truly distinguishes itself through the range of screens it supports. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. ReelShort’s App Store listing, by comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all, which underlines that this big-screen option is rarer than you might think. Of course, a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, yet the option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.

The growing Fox slate sits alongside Holywater’s own early productions in the catalog. The Fox releases stick close to the genre’s established formula, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make obvious. Scale is the candid caveat here. On Google Play the app displays 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap puts My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded 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. “My Drama: Full Access” costs about $19.99 per week in the US App Store as of September 2026. 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. From around $4.99 to $24.99, coin packs unlock individual episodes. With a separate Premium tier listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers get cheaper entry points than the full pass. The figure on your own screen may be different, because prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription auto-renews, as its rivals’ plans do. Do the arithmetic before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total about $80 a month.

Terms to Know Before You Pay

Most viewers pay less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. A balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish, because coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. For viewers in the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are described as non-refundable. The terms make it clear, most importantly, that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. To cancel on an iPhone, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. When you buy through a store, refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.

It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, whereas everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. A further 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. If the price seems too high, the legal move is to cancel the pass, not to go hunting for a hack.

Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner

By install counts, My Drama is not close to being the biggest vertical drama app. What it offers instead is 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. The practical advantage for viewers is Apple TV support, something ReelShort, for one, does not list. The drawback remains the same one that plagues every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. If the largest claimed library is simply what you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. Viewers who want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television should know that the My Drama app earns a place on their home screen. Either way, set a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.