A Kyiv Studio Stakes Its Wager on the Vertical Drama
Holywater wasn’t born as a television company. It was in 2020 that Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the company in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its range of products still reads more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming platform. Next to My Drama sit My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. This mix is significant, since it shows a company that sees video as one consumer product among several rather than its complete identity. The gamble it eventually placed was on the vertical drama, a format that began My CEO Mommy and Kung Fu Daddy drama in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for an upright phone. For a small Ukrainian firm, this was a daring market to enter, because the genre’s biggest names were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
Spring 2024 and the Debut of the My Drama App
The precise launch date of the My Drama app hinges on which source you trust, but the app launched in spring 2024. Per TechCrunch, the launch happened in April, while Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Those store dates suggest that Android came first, with the iPhone version landing about two months later. From the start, the slate relied heavily on the genre’s best-loved tropes. Early titles included The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that tell you most of what you need to know about the style. What in the end distinguished the company was not the stories themselves but the collaborator it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Funding and a Webby Award
October 2025 was the month My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity. Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater, in a deal that included a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. In January 2026, three months later, Holywater secured $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. Among the Fox-produced titles on the service are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. The company additionally holds a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, a credential it displays on its App Store listing. Few rivals can boast what these milestones give My Drama, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama Fact File
If you only have a moment, the table below is the quick version of the story. It collects in one place the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a first-time viewer. All prices are taken from 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 legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, which turns out to be relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is what the install figure refers to.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater, set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founders | 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) |
| Contract party, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch | 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 | About $19.99 per week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packs | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Funding | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
How Watching on My Drama Plays Out
The basic experience mirrors the one the whole category is founded on. In this genre, episodes generally last a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you on to the next one, and they are vertical, framed for an upright phone. A single story can silently consume an evening in small bites, because series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. Where this drama app truly sets itself apart is the range of screens it supports. As well as iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed 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. The option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together, even though a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV.
The growing Fox slate sits alongside Holywater’s own early productions in the library. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession show that the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s familiar formula. Scale is the honest caveat here. The app displays 5M+ installs on Google Play, a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. In 2026, that gap shows that My Drama is a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs in 2026
The main figure is the weekly pass, one of the three ways Holywater sells access. „My Drama: Full Access“ is priced at around $19.99 per week in the US App Store as of September 2026. That puts it in line with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, all listed at about the same price in the same store. At about $4.99 to $24.99, coin bundles unlock individual episodes. Lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass, because a separate Premium tier is listed at about $4.99 to $9.99. Like its rivals‘ plans, the weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it. The figure on your own device may be different, as prices change by country, platform and promotion. Do the arithmetic before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total about $80 a month.
The Terms Worth Reading Before You Pay
Most viewers give less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Because coin purchases are final, there is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. A balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish, since coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. In line with the consumer rules in those markets, viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal. Purchases on the web are listed as non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say this plainly, and that is the most important point of all. To cancel on an iPhone, head to Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It also pays to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. Everyone outside the US contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus, while US users contract with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company. Another warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Sites promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial, and they are not a safe way to watch anything. Cancelling the pass, not hunting for a hack, is the proper move if the price feels steep.
Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
By install counts, My Drama is not even close to being the largest vertical drama app. Rather, it offers 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. Viewers get a practical upside in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. The drawback remains the same one that dogs every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV, the My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen. In both cases, set a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.

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