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A Kyiv Studio Puts Its Bet on the Vertical Drama

In the beginning, Holywater was not a television outfit. Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the studio in 2020 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio even now looks more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming network. My Drama sits in a portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That breadth matters, as it reveals a company that sees video as one of several consumer products rather The Alpha’s Captive Mate free than its complete identity. In the end, it placed its bet on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for an upright phone. For a small Ukrainian business, this was a gutsy market to enter, because the genre’s leading names were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.

Spring 2024 and the Arrival of the My Drama App

Spring 2024 brought the launch of the My Drama app, though the exact date depends on which source you trust. Per TechCrunch, the launch took place in April, whereas Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Based on the gap between those store dates, Android probably came first and the iPhone version followed about two months later. At launch, the slate relied heavily on the genre’s best-loved tropes. The first titles featured The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that tell you most of what you need to know about the style. The partner it would soon be making them with, not the stories themselves, is what eventually made it stand out.

Fox, $22M in Funding and a Webby Award

The month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity was October 2025. An equity stake in Holywater went to Fox Entertainment, and the agreement carried a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater closed $22M in a funding round led by Horizon Capital. The platform hosts Fox-produced titles such as Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. On its App Store listing, the company features a further credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. Taken together, those milestones give My Drama something few rivals can match, namely a major American studio working as both shareholder and producer.

The My Drama Fact Sheet

The quick version of the story is in the table below, for readers who only have a minute. It pulls together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. Prices are the ones listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. They change by country, platform and promotion, so read them as a rough guide rather than a firm quote. The legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, which turns out to be relevant if you ever need to contest a charge. The install figure comes from Google Play, where the app lists 5M+ downloads.

What It Feels Like to Watch My Drama

At its heart, the experience is the same one the entire category is built on. Episodes are vertical and framed for an upright phone; in this genre they typically run one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger pushes you on to the next one. A single story can quietly swallow an evening in short bites, as series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. Where this drama app truly distinguishes itself is the range of screens it supports. Beyond iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all, which shows that that big-screen option is rarer than you might think. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, but the option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.

The growing Fox slate sits next to Holywater’s own early productions in the catalog. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain, the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s established formula. Scale is the fair caveat here. The app shows 5M+ installs on Google Play, a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. In 2026, this gap shows that My Drama is a well-backed challenger rather than the category leader.

My Drama Pricing in 2026

Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass carries the key figure. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” is priced at roughly $19.99 a 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. To unlock individual episodes, there are coin bundles running from about $4.99 to $24.99. The store also lists a separate Premium tier at about $4.99 to $9.99, which gives lighter viewers lower-cost entry points than the full pass. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it. As prices differ by country, platform and promotion, the figure on your own device may be different. Four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total roughly $80 a month, so run the numbers before you commit.

Before You Pay: The Terms to Know

The terms of use for My Drama contain fine print worth 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 left untouched for a year can simply vanish. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are labeled non-refundable. Viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. The terms make it clear, most importantly, that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are processed by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.

Understanding exactly who sits on the other side of the contract is also useful. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, whereas everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. One more warning applies to My Drama 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. Canceling the pass, not looking for a hack, is the proper move when the price feels steep.

Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner

My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and judging by install counts it is not even close. What it has instead is an unusual mix: 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. The drawback is the same one that plagues every rival, namely a weekly pass of around $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. For viewers who simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax and its 50,000+ dramas make the more obvious pick. For Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen. Either way, set a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.