A Kyiv Studio Wagers on the Vertical Drama
Holywater didn’t begin its life as a TV business. The company was established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its portfolio to this day looks more reelshort free like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming platform. My Passion covers books, My Muse covers AI, and FreeBits completes the set alongside My Drama. The range matters: it shows a company for which video is one consumer product among several, not its whole identity. The bet it eventually made was on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for a phone held vertically. For a small Ukrainian business, this was a gutsy market to enter, as the genre’s leading names were backed by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
Spring 2024 and the Debut of the My Drama App
In spring 2024, the My Drama app arrived, though the precise date depends on which source you trust. TechCrunch placed the launch in April, Google Play gives March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. The difference between those store dates indicates that Android came first and the iPhone version followed about two months later. The genre’s best-loved tropes shaped the first slate. Most of what you need to know about the tone is clear in early titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss. It was not the stories themselves that eventually 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, and the agreement came with a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Fox-produced titles on the platform include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Then, in January 2026, three months on, Holywater pulled in $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. The company additionally has a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, a distinction it features on its App Store listing. Few rivals can claim what these milestones give My Drama, namely a big American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: The Fact File
The table below offers the quick version of the story for when you only have a minute. First-time viewers will find the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to them collected in it. As of September 2026, the prices are the ones shown in the US App Store. Country, platform and promotion all affect them, so read them as a rough guide rather than a quote. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is what the install count refers to. If you ever need to dispute a charge, it matters that the legal entity you deal with depends on where you live.
| Topic | Information |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater, set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Related apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contracting entity, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch date | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Supported platforms | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Android downloads | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access pass | About $19.99 a week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packages | Around $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium plans | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Production partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Latest funding | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
What Watching on My Drama Feels Like
The central experience is the one the entire category is built on. In this genre, episodes typically run a minute or two before a cliffhanger pushes you toward the next one, and they are vertical, sized for an upright phone. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can silently swallow an evening in short bites. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app really distinguishes itself. It is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro, in addition to iPhone, iPad and Android. That big-screen option is rarer than you might think: by comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all. The option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together, even though a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the catalog, blending the two. The genre’s familiar formula remains the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain. Scale is where the fair caveat comes in. ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list 100M+ installs on Google Play, while My Drama lists 5M+, a small fraction of that. That gap shows where My Drama sits in 2026: a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
My Drama Pricing in 2026
Access comes three ways, and the headline figure is the weekly pass. Roughly $19.99 a week is what “My Drama: Full Access” costs 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. Coin packs, which unlock individual episodes, cost from about $4.99 to $24.99. Thanks to a separate Premium tier listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers get lower-cost entry points than the full pass. The figure on your own screen may be different, because prices change by country, platform and promotion. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription keeps renewing, just as its rivals’ plans do. Do the arithmetic before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass add up to about $80 a month.
The Terms to Understand Before You Pay
My Drama’s terms of use include fine print that deserves more attention than most viewers give it. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. After 12 months of inactivity, coins are also forfeited, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. Viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal, reflecting the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are labeled non-refundable. The terms make it clear, and this matters most, that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. iPhone owners cancel under Settings, then their name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Holywater does not process refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google handles them.
It is also worth knowing exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. Everyone outside the US contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus, while US users deal with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company. One more warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Modded APKs, unlimited coins and free coin generators are promised by unofficial sites, and such sites are not a safe way to watch anything. When the price seems too high, cancel the pass; do not go hunting for a hack.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and on install counts it is not even close. 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, a feature ReelShort, for one, does not list. The drawback is the same one that plagues every rival: a weekly pass of around $19.99 that quietly renews in the background. For Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick if you simply want the largest claimed library. Either way, create a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.