A Kyiv Studio Gambles on the Vertical Drama
Holywater was not born as a television business. The studio was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its product lineup to this day looks more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming service. My Drama is listed next to My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. The spread is telling: it points to a business for which video is one of several consumer products, not its whole identity. In the end, it made its wager on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed Contract Marriage drama 9:16 for a phone held upright. The groups behind the category’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, making this a daring market for a small Ukrainian firm to enter.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Hits the Stores
During spring 2024, the My Drama app went live, although the exact date varies with which record you believe. The launch timing varies by source: TechCrunch placed it in April, Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Those store dates imply that Android came first, with the iPhone version following about two months later. At launch, the slate leaned hard on the genre’s best-loved tropes. Early titles featured The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that reveal most of what you need to know about the style. It was not the stories themselves that eventually set the company apart, but the collaborator it would soon be making them with.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Award
October 2025 was the month My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity. Under an agreement that came with a pledge to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater. Among the Fox-produced titles on the platform are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. A $22M round led by Horizon Capital came three months later, in January 2026, when Holywater raised the money. The company also holds a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a credential it shows off on its App Store listing. Those 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 at a Glance
If you only have a moment, the table below offers the short version of the story. It collects the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer. As of September 2026, the prices are those shown in the US App Store. They vary by country, platform and promotion, so use them as a guide rather than a firm quote. The install number refers to Google Play, where the app shows 5M+ downloads. Where you live determines the legal entity you deal with, something that becomes relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge.
| Topic | Information |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater, founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Companion apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Contracting entity, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contracting entity, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Installs on Android | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access plan | Around $19.99 per week, auto-renewing |
| Coin packages | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium options | Roughly $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio backer | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Funding | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
How Watching on My Drama Plays Out
The whole category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama follows it. Formatted for a phone held upright, episodes are vertical, and in this genre they usually run a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you toward the next. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, one story can quietly eat up an evening in bite-sized pieces. This drama app truly distinguishes itself through 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. By comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all, so this big-screen option is rarer than you might expect. 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.
The growing Fox slate sits alongside Holywater’s own early productions in the library. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain, the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s well-worn formula. Scale is where the honest caveat comes in. On Google Play the app lists 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
My Drama Pricing in 2026
Holywater sells access three ways, and the key figure is the weekly pass. Around $19.99 a week is what «My Drama: Full Access» runs in the US App Store as of September 2026. That places it on par with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, all listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin packs, used to unlock individual episodes, range from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. With a separate Premium tier listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers get cheaper entry points than the full pass. Country, platform and promotion all affect prices, so the figure on your own device may be different. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it. Run the numbers first: at four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass comes to around $80 a month.
Terms to Check Before You Pay
The terms of use for My Drama contain fine print worth more attention than most viewers give it. Since coin purchases are final, there is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. Coins are also forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, which means a balance you ignore for a year can simply disappear. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Whatever you buy on the web is labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. The crucial point is this: the terms say clearly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Apple or Google, not Holywater, process refunds for store purchases.
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. Any site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. The legitimate move to a steep price is to cancel the pass, not to go hunting for a hack.
The Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood
On install counts, My Drama is not even close to being the largest vertical drama app. What it offers instead is an uncommon combination: a Kyiv founding story, a Fox equity partner signed up for 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. A weekly pass of around $19.99 that renews quietly in the background is the downside, the same one that plagues every rival. 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. If the largest claimed library is simply what you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. Either way, do not trust the delete button: create a reminder the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account.