The Vertical Drama Bet of a Kyiv Studio
Holywater was not born as a TV business. In 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the company in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its product lineup to this day looks more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming network. My Passion handles books, My Muse is for AI, and FreeBits Secret Baby reelshort rounds out the family next to My Drama. It matters that the portfolio is so spread out, since it shows a company that sees video as one of several consumer products instead of its entire identity. Eventually, it put its bet on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for an upright phone. The groups behind the sector’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, making this a bold market for a small Ukrainian firm to enter.
The My Drama App Launches in Spring 2024
The exact launch date of the My Drama app depends on which record you believe, but it launched in spring 2024. The launch date differs by source: TechCrunch put it in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Judging by the gap between those store dates, Android probably came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. The genre’s most popular tropes shaped the initial slate. The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss were some of the first titles, names that reveal most of what you need to know about the tone. What eventually distinguished the company was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Win
During October 2025, My Drama stopped being a mere startup curiosity. In an agreement that came with a pledge to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater secured $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. Included in the Fox-produced titles on the service are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. The company also holds a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, a distinction it features on its App Store listing. These milestones, taken together, hand My Drama a rare asset that few rivals can claim: a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
The My Drama Fact Sheet
The short version of the story sits in the table below, for readers who only have a minute. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer are gathered in one place. The prices are the ones displayed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all affect them, so treat them as a guide rather than a firm quote. On Google Play, where the install figure comes from, the app lists 5M+ downloads. The legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, which is relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge.
| Category | Information |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Contracting entity, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Legal entity for other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Release | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Installs on Android | 5M+ on Google Play |
| Full-access plan | Around $19.99 a week, auto-renewing |
| Coin packs | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium options | Roughly $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Latest funding | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
The My Drama Viewing Experience
The entire category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. Episodes are vertical, formatted for an upright phone, and in this genre they typically run a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you to the next one. A single story can silently eat up an evening in short bites, since series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. What really sets this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. As well as iPhone, iPad and Android, the app appears for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. That big-screen option is more unusual than you might expect, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. Of course, a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, 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 genre’s well-worn formula remains the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make clear. The fair caveat here is scale. On Google Play the app lists 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap puts My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
What My Drama Costs in 2026: Plans and Prices
The main figure is the weekly pass, one of three ways Holywater sells access. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” is priced at about $19.99 per week. ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort list their weekly passes at about the same price in the same store, so the app is level with them. For unlocking individual episodes, there are coin packs running from about $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass, since a separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99. As prices vary by country, platform and promotion, the figure on your own screen may differ. Just as with its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it. Run the numbers first: with four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass adds up to around $80 a month.
Terms to Read Before You Pay
The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use deserves more attention than most viewers give it. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. On top of that, coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. A 14-day right of withdrawal applies to viewers in the EU and UK, reflecting the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, purchases made on the web are described as non-refundable. Above all, the terms say clearly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. iPhone owners cancel under Settings, then their name, then Subscriptions, whereas Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. For store purchases, refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, handles US users, whereas everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. Here, as with any vertical drama app, a further warning applies. Any site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. If the price feels steep, the proper move is to cancel the pass, not to look for a hack.
Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
On install counts, My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and it is not even 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. The practical upside for viewers is Apple TV support, something ReelShort, for one, does not list. A weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background is the catch, the same one that plagues every rival. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. Anyone who wants Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV should know that the My Drama app deserves a place on their home screen. Whichever you pick, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and set a reminder the day you subscribe.