The Vertical Drama Bet of a Kyiv Studio
The company called Holywater did not begin its life as a TV outfit. Back in 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming network. My Drama shares the portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That spread is telling, as it reveals a business that treats video as one consumer product among several rather than its entire identity. The vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held upright, became its eventual wager. The category’s largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups, mobile drama app so moving into this market was a daring step for a small Ukrainian firm.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Goes Live
Spring 2024 brought the launch of the My Drama app, though the exact date depends on which source you believe. TechCrunch put the launch in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. The gap between those store dates indicates that Android came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. The initial slate leaned hard on the genre’s favorite tropes. The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss were some of the early titles, names that tell you most of what you need to know about the mood. What in the end distinguished the company was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Funding and a Webby Award
My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity in October 2025. An equity stake in Holywater was taken by Fox Entertainment, and the agreement came with a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. The platform hosts Fox-produced titles including Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Horizon Capital led a $22M funding round for Holywater three months later, in January 2026. The company also holds a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, an honor it features on its App Store listing. Few rivals can boast what those milestones hand My Drama, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama Fact File
The table below is the condensed version of the story if you only have a minute. New viewers will find the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to them collected here. Prices are the ones displayed in the US App Store as of September 2026. They differ by country, platform and promotion, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a fixed quote. Where you live determines the legal entity you deal with, something that is relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge. The install count is taken from Google Play, where the app displays 5M+ downloads.
| Item | Information |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater, set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Companion apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Contract party, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contract party, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Supported platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Installs on Android | 5M+ on Google Play |
| Full-access plan | Roughly $19.99 a week, with automatic renewal |
| Coin packages | Around $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio backer | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Investment | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
How Watching on My Drama Plays Out
At its heart, the experience is the same one the entire category rests on. Episodes are vertical, framed for a phone held upright, and in this genre they usually last a minute or two before a cliffhanger pushes you on to the next one. A single story can quietly consume an evening in short bites, because series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. Where this drama app truly distinguishes itself is the range of screens it supports. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. That big-screen option is more unusual than you might think, 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 converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
The growing Fox slate sits beside Holywater’s own early productions in the catalog. The Fox releases stay close to the genre’s established formula, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain. Scale is where the honest caveat comes in. At 5M+ installs on Google Play, the app has a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each show. In 2026, that gap tells you that My Drama is a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs in 2026
The main figure is the weekly pass, one of the three ways Holywater sells access. In the US App Store as of September 2026, „My Drama: Full Access“ runs around $19.99 per week. That places it on par 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 around $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass, because a separate Premium tier is listed at around $4.99 to $9.99. The weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it, just like its rivals‘ plans. The figure on your own screen may differ, because prices change by country, platform and promotion. Do the math before signing up: with four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass comes to about $80 a month.
Before You Pay: Terms Worth Knowing
Most viewers give less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. All coin purchases are final, which means 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 disappear. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are described as non-refundable. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms state this clearly, and that is the most important point of all. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are dealt with by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
Understanding exactly who sits on the other side of the contract also helps. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, while everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. A further warning applies to My Drama as much as to any vertical drama app. Sites offering modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial and are not a safe way to watch anything. If the price seems too high, cancel the pass; do not hunt for a hack.
Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
On install counts, My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and it is not close. Rather, it offers an unlikely 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 upside for My Drama viewers. As with every rival, the drawback is a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. If you want 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 choice if you simply want the largest claimed library. Whichever you pick, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and create a reminder the day you subscribe.
