The Vertical Drama Gamble of a Kyiv Studio
Holywater wasn’t born as a television operation. Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the studio in 2020 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its range of products to this day looks more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming platform. My Passion covers books, My Muse is for AI, and FreeBits rounds out the family alongside My Drama. That breadth matters, because it shows watch Return Of The Medical Sage a business that views video as one of several consumer products rather than its entire identity. The gamble it ultimately placed was on the vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held vertically. For a small Ukrainian firm, this was a bold market to enter, since the sector’s largest players were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
The My Drama App Goes Live in Spring 2024
Spring 2024 brought the launch of the My Drama app, though the precise date depends on which record you trust. TechCrunch dated the launch in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store gives May 9, 2024. Based on the difference between those store dates, Android probably came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. The opening slate leaned into the genre’s best-loved tropes. Initial titles included The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that show most of what you need to know about the style. The studio was eventually set apart not by the stories themselves but by the partner it would soon be producing them with.
The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
October 2025 was the month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity. Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater, with an agreement that included a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Among the Fox-produced titles on the platform are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. In January 2026, three months later, Holywater pulled in $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. In its App Store listing, the company displays a further credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. Put together, those milestones give My Drama something few rivals can claim, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
The My Drama Fact Sheet
The table below gives the quick version of the story for when you only have a moment. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a first-time viewer are pulled together there. Prices are the ones shown in the US App Store as of September 2026. They change by country, platform and promotion, so read them as a guide rather than a quote. Which legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to contest a charge. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is what the install count refers to.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Owned by | Holywater, established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Related 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) |
| Launch | Spring 2024 (Google Play on March 13; App Store on May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Android downloads | 5M+ on Google Play |
| Full access pass | Around $19.99 per week, auto-renewing |
| Coin packs | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium plans | Roughly $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 |
| Honors | Webby Award, Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
What Watching on My Drama Feels Like
The central experience is the one the entire category is built on. Episodes are vertical, formatted for a phone held upright, and in this genre they generally last a minute or two before a cliffhanger pushes you to the next one. Series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, so a single story can silently swallow an evening in bite-sized pieces. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app really stands out. Apart from iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. That big-screen option is rarer than you might think, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, but the option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate share the catalog, blending the two. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain, the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s well-worn formula. Scale is where the candid caveat comes in. On Google Play the app displays 5M+ installs, a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap puts My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs 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. 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. To unlock individual episodes, there are coin packs priced from about $4.99 to $24.99. A separate Premium tier is listed at around $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have cheaper entry points than the full pass. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it. The figure on your own device may differ, since prices change by country, platform and promotion. Before you commit, do the math: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass add up to around $80 a month.
Before You Pay: Terms Worth Knowing
Most viewers pay less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Every coin purchase is final, which means 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. Web purchases are described as non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. A 14-day right of withdrawal covers viewers in the EU and UK, reflecting 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. 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.
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. One more warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Any 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 feels steep, the right step is cancelling the pass; do not go hunting 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. 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 add up to the uncommon combination it offers instead. The practical benefit for viewers is Apple TV support, a feature ReelShort, for one, does not list. The downside remains the same one that dogs every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. For viewers who simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax and its 50,000+ dramas make the more obvious pick. If you are after Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen. Whichever you choose, create a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.
