A Kyiv Studio Bets on the Vertical Drama
The company called Holywater did not start its life as a television company. Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the studio in 2020 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its lineup still looks more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming network. My Drama sits in a Queen Mom Rules drama portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That range is significant, as it points to a company that sees video as one of several consumer products rather than its whole identity. Eventually, Holywater wagered on the vertical drama, a format that started in China as duanju and is shot 9:16 for a phone held upright. For a small Ukrainian firm, this was a daring market to enter, as the category’s leading names were backed by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Goes Live
Spring 2024 brought the launch of the My Drama app, although the precise date depends on which record you trust. The launch timing differs by source: TechCrunch placed it in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Android appears to have come first, as the gap between those store dates indicates, with the iPhone version arriving about two months later. The opening slate leaned into the genre’s go-to tropes. Early titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss tell you most of what you need to know about the mood just by their names. What ultimately set the company apart was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be making them with.
A Fox Deal, a $22M Raise and a Webby
My Drama stopped being just a startup curiosity in October 2025. Under a deal that came with a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater closed $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. Fox-produced titles on the platform include 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 shows off on its App Store listing. Few rivals can claim what those milestones give My Drama, namely a big American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: The Fact File
The quick version of the story is in the table below, for anyone who only has a minute. It gathers in one place the details on ownership, legal matters, platforms and pricing that count most to a first-time viewer. The prices are the ones listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. They differ by country, platform and promotion, so read them as a guide rather than a quote. If you ever need to contest a charge, it matters that the legal entity you deal with depends on where you live. On Google Play, the source of the install figure, the app lists 5M+ downloads.
| Category | Information |
|---|---|
| Owned by | Holywater, established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Contracting entity, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Legal entity for other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Supported platforms | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Android installs | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access plan | Roughly $19.99 per week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packages | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Investment | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
How Watching on My Drama Feels
The whole category is built on this same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. Formatted for an upright phone, episodes are vertical, and in this genre they typically run a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you on to the next. A single story can quietly swallow an evening in short bites, since series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app truly stands out. On top of iPhone, iPad and Android, the app appears for Apple TV running tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. ReelShort’s App Store listing, by comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all, which shows that that big-screen option is rarer than you might expect. The option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together, even though a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV.
On the content side, the library blends Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. The genre’s familiar formula remains the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain. The honest caveat here is scale. On Google Play the app displays 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
My Drama Pricing in 2026
Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass carries the main figure. Around $19.99 per week is what « My Drama: Full Access » runs in the US App Store as of September 2026. 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. To unlock individual episodes, there are coin packs priced from about $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass, as a separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it. The figure on your own device may be different, since prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Do the math before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass add up to roughly $80 a month.
Before You Pay: The Terms to Know
The terms of use for My Drama include 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. On top of that, coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. Whatever you buy on the web is labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say so clearly, which is the most important point of all. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Holywater does not handle refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google does.
Knowing exactly who sits on the other side of the contract is also useful. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, while everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. As with any vertical drama app, another warning applies here. A site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. The legitimate move to a steep price is to cancel the pass, not to look for a hack.
Our 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. Instead, it offers an unlikely 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 benefit for viewers is Apple TV support, something 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 plagues every rival. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. Either way, create a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.
