Inside Vertical Drama TV Guide for Beginners

A Kyiv Studio Places Its Wager on the Vertical Drama

Holywater didn’t begin its life as a television business. It was in 2020 that Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its product lineup even now reads more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming network. My Drama sits in a portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. It is telling that the portfolio is so spread out, because it shows a company that sees video as one consumer product among several rather than its whole identity. The vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for a phone held vertical drama all episodes upright, became its eventual wager. For a small Ukrainian firm, this was a brave market to enter, as the category’s leading names were backed by Chinese and Singaporean groups.

Spring 2024: The My Drama App Arrives

The My Drama app arrived in spring 2024, but the precise date hinges on which record you trust. The launch timing varies by source: TechCrunch put it in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Based on the gap between those store dates, Android probably came first and the iPhone version followed about two months later. The initial slate was heavily built around 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 reveal most of what you need to know about the style. It was not the stories themselves that eventually set the company apart, but the partner it would soon be producing them with.

A Fox Deal, a $22M Raise and a Webby

My Drama ceased to be just a startup curiosity in October 2025. Under an agreement that came with a commitment to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater. Included in the Fox-produced titles on the service are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater raised $22M in a funding round led by Horizon Capital. On its App Store listing, the company displays a further credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. These milestones, taken together, give My Drama a rare advantage that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.

My Drama: The Fact File

The table below is the condensed version of the story for when you only have a minute. First-time viewers will find the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to them gathered here. As of September 2026, the prices are those listed in the US App Store. Read them as a guide rather than a quote, since they vary by country, platform and promotion. Which legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, a point that becomes relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is the store the install figure refers to.

What Watching on My Drama Feels Like

The core experience mirrors the one the whole category is founded on. Formatted for an upright phone, episodes are vertical, and in this genre they usually last a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you on to the next. As series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can silently consume an evening in short bites. This drama app truly stands out through the range of screens it supports. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. This big-screen option is rarer than you might think: by comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing 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 enjoy together.

The growing Fox slate sits alongside Holywater’s own early productions in the catalog. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession show that the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s established formula. 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. This gap shows where My Drama sits in 2026, as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.

What My Drama Costs in 2026: Plans and Prices

Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass is the headline figure. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” costs roughly $19.99 a week. This puts it in line with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, each listed at about the same price in the same store. At roughly $4.99 to $24.99, coin packs unlock individual episodes. A separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass. Prices differ by country, platform and promotion, so the figure on your own device may differ. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it. Four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass come to around $80 a month, so do the arithmetic before you commit.

Terms to Check Before You Pay

The terms of use for My Drama contain fine print that 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. A balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish, since coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are labeled non-refundable. A 14-day right of withdrawal covers viewers in the EU and UK, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say this clearly, which is the most important point of all. To cancel on an iPhone, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are dealt with by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.

It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. Everyone outside the US contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus, while US users deal with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company. 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. Canceling the pass, not looking for a hack, is the legitimate move when the price seems too high.

Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner

My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and on install counts it is not 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. 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 dogs every rival, namely a weekly pass of about $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. 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. Whatever you decide, never rely on the delete button: create a reminder the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account.