A Kyiv Studio Wagers on the Vertical Drama
In the beginning, Holywater was not a TV business. Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov started the company in 2020 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its lineup still reads more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming network. My Drama shares the portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. This mix is significant, because it points to a business that treats video as one consumer product among several rather than its entire identity. The gamble it eventually made was on the vertical drama, a watch True Luna format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held upright. The sector’s biggest names were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups, so moving into this market was a bold move for a small Ukrainian business.
The My Drama App Goes Live in Spring 2024
In spring 2024, the My Drama app went live, though the precise date hinges on which source you believe. The launch timing varies by source: TechCrunch put it in April, Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Those store dates indicate that Android came first, with the iPhone version arriving about two months later. From the start, the slate leaned hard on the genre’s favorite tropes. Most of what you need to know about the mood comes through in the first 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 set the company apart, but the partner it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Win
My Drama stopped being just a startup curiosity in October 2025. 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. Fox-produced titles on the service include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater secured $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. The company also holds a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, a distinction it displays on its App Store listing. Combined, those milestones give My Drama something few rivals can match, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
The My Drama Fact Sheet
For readers who only have a minute, the table below gives the quick version of the story. It brings together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer. The prices are the ones listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all change 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 figure refers to. Which legal entity you deal with is determined by where you live, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge.
| Topic | Information |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater, set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Related apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contract party, 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 plan | Roughly $19.99 per week, auto-renewing |
| Coin bundles | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Production partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Latest funding | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
The My Drama Viewing Experience
At its heart, the experience is the one the whole category is built on. Episodes are vertical and framed for an upright phone; in this genre episodes typically last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger nudges you toward the next one. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, one story can quietly eat up an evening in short bites. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app truly stands out. It is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro, in addition to iPhone, iPad and Android. This big-screen option is less common than you might think: by comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, but the option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate share the catalog, blending the two. The Fox releases stay close to the genre’s familiar formula, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make obvious. Here, the fair caveat is scale. On Google Play the app displays 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap reveals where My Drama sits in 2026, as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs in 2026
Access comes in three ways, and the main figure is the weekly pass. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” costs about $19.99 a week. That puts it level with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, which are listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin bundles, which unlock individual episodes, cost from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. There is also a separate Premium tier at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, giving lighter viewers cheaper entry points than the full pass. Just as with its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription keeps renewing automatically until you cancel it. The figure on your own screen may differ, since prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Before you commit, do the math: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass add up to around $80 a month.
Terms Worth Knowing Before You Pay
The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use deserves more attention than most viewers give it. There is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it, since coin purchases are final. Also, coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. For viewers in the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, mirroring the consumer rules in those markets. Anything you buy on the web is labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Most important of all, 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. For store purchases, refunds are processed by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It is also wise to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, while everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. One more warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Sites advertising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial and are not a safe way to watch anything. When the price feels steep, the right step is cancelling the pass; do not look for a hack.
Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and on install counts it is not close. What it offers instead is an uncommon 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. Viewers get a practical upside in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. A weekly pass of around $19.99 that renews quietly in the background is the catch, the same one that dogs 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. When the largest claimed library is simply what you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. Either way, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and create a reminder the day you subscribe.
Leave a comment: