A Kyiv Studio Stakes Its Wager on the Vertical Drama
Holywater wasn’t founded as a TV company. The business was established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its portfolio still reads more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming network. Beside My Drama sit My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That spread matters, since video is one consumer product among several for Holywater, not its entire identity. Eventually, Holywater bet on the vertical drama, a format that began in real short China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for a phone held vertically. Moving into this market was daring for a small Ukrainian business, since the category’s largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
Spring 2024 and the Arrival of the My Drama App
In spring 2024, the My Drama app went live, although the exact date hinges on which record you believe. Per TechCrunch, the launch took place in April, whereas Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Those store dates indicate that Android was first, with the iPhone version landing about two months later. The initial slate was built around the genre’s go-to tropes. Most of what you need to know about the style is clear in early titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss. The collaborator it would soon be producing them with, not the stories themselves, is what eventually made it stand out.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Win
The month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity was October 2025. Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater, with an agreement that included a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater raised $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. In its App Store listing, the company features another credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. Together, these milestones hand My Drama something few rivals can boast: a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: Key Facts
If you only have a spare minute, the table below offers the condensed version of the story. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer are gathered there. The prices are those displayed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Read them as a rough guide rather than a quote, because they vary by country, platform and promotion. If you ever need to contest a charge, it helps to know that the legal entity you contract with depends on where you live. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is what the install count refers to.
| Category | Information |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Founded by | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Related apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Legal entity for other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Release | Spring 2024 (Google Play on March 13; App Store on May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Installs on Android | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full access pass | Roughly $19.99 a week, auto-renewing |
| Coin packs | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Production partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Funding | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
What Watching on My Drama Feels Like
At its heart, the experience is the same one the whole category rests on. Episodes are vertical, framed for a phone held upright, and in this genre they typically last a minute or two before a cliffhanger propels you to the next one. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can quietly eat up an evening in short bites. What really sets this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. On top of iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Apple TV running 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 television, the option turns a solitary phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the library, blending the two. The genre’s well-worn formula is still the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make clear. Here, the candid caveat is scale. ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list 100M+ installs on Google Play, while the app shows 5M+, a small fraction of that. This gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
What My Drama Costs in 2026: Plans and Prices
The key figure is the weekly pass, one of the three ways Holywater sells access. “My Drama: Full Access” is priced at about $19.99 per week in the US App Store as of September 2026. The weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort are listed at about the same price in the same store, which puts My Drama on par with them. From roughly $4.99 to $24.99, coin packs unlock individual episodes. The store also lists a separate Premium tier at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, giving lighter viewers less expensive entry points than the full pass. As prices change by country, platform and promotion, the figure on your own screen may differ. The weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it, just like its rivals’ plans. Run the numbers first: at four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass comes to around $80 a month.
The Terms to Understand Before You Pay
The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use warrants 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. Coins are also forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, which means a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. Purchases made on the web are labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. The most important point is this: the terms say clearly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. To cancel on an iPhone, head to Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Apple or Google, not Holywater, handle refunds for store purchases.
It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, handles 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. A 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 right step is cancelling the pass; do not hunt for a hack.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and on install counts it is not even close. What it has instead is an unusual 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 advantage for My Drama viewers. The drawback is the same one that plagues every rival, namely a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. The My Drama app earns a place on your home screen if you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. Whatever you decide, do not trust the delete button: set a reminder the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account.