A Kyiv Studio Stakes Its Wager on the Vertical Drama
At the outset, Holywater was not a television company. It was in 2020 that Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov set up the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio still reads 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 range is telling: it points to a business for which video is one consumer product among several, not its entire identity. The bet it eventually placed was on the vertical drama, a format that originated in China as duanju and is composed 9:16 for an upright phone. For a small Ukrainian company, this was a bold market to enter, because the sector’s watch short reels largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
Spring 2024 and the Arrival of the My Drama App
Spring 2024 saw the launch of the My Drama app, although the precise date depends on which record you believe. Per TechCrunch, the launch took place in April, while Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Android seems to have come first, as the difference between those store dates indicates, with the iPhone version arriving about two months later. The genre’s best-loved tropes filled the opening slate. The first 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. What ultimately made the company stand out was not the stories themselves but the collaborator it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Funding and a Webby Win
In October 2025, My Drama stopped being a mere startup curiosity. In a deal that came with a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater. In January 2026, three months on, Holywater raised $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. Fox-produced titles on the service include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. The company also holds a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a credential it features on its App Store listing. Combined, these milestones give My Drama something few rivals can boast: a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama Fact File
If you only have a minute, the table below offers the condensed version of the story. It pulls together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. The prices are those listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. They vary by country, platform and promotion, so read them as a rough guide rather than a firm quote. The install figure refers to Google Play, where the app displays 5M+ downloads. The legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, which becomes relevant if you ever need to contest a charge.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater, established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founded by | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Companion apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Legal entity for 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) |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Installs on Android | 5M+ on Google Play |
| Full access pass | Around $19.99 per week, with automatic renewal |
| Coin packages | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | Around $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, Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
How Watching on My Drama Feels
The central experience is the one the whole category is built on. Episodes are vertical and sized for a phone held upright; in this genre episodes typically last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger propels you on to the next one. Since series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can silently consume an evening in short bites. What truly marks this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. On top of iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. That big-screen option is less common than you might expect, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. Although a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, the option transforms a solitary phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
Content-wise, the library blends Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. 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. With 5M+ installs on Google Play, the app has a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each show. This gap puts My Drama in 2026 as a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
My Drama Pricing in 2026
The main figure is the weekly pass, one of three ways Holywater sells access. As of September 2026, the US App Store lists “My Drama: Full Access” at about $19.99 per week. 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, used to unlock individual episodes, range from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. A separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass. Prices differ by country, platform and promotion, so the figure on your own screen may be different. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription keeps renewing, as its rivals’ plans do. Before you commit, do the arithmetic: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass come to roughly $80 a month.
Terms to Know Before You Pay
Most viewers give less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. 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 vanish. Anything you buy on the web is labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal, reflecting the consumer rules in those markets. The crucial point of all: the terms state plainly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. To cancel on an iPhone, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Holywater does not process refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google does.
Understanding exactly who sits on the other side of the contract is also useful. US users sign with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, while everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. In this case, as with any vertical drama app, a further warning applies. A site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. When the price seems steep, the proper move is to cancel the pass, not to hunt for a hack.
The Verdict: A Challenger Backed by Hollywood
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and going by install counts it is not close. What it has 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. For viewers there is a practical upside in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. As with every rival, the downside is a weekly pass of around $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. When the largest claimed library is simply what you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. The My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen if you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television. Whichever you choose, create a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account instead of trusting the delete button.
