A search for “short tv” in an app store brings up a swarm of look-alike apps, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the whole case this file takes on. Put simply, the working theory holds that the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia and the app sold today as ShortMax are one and the same. No official rename announcement has turned up, so the theory, while strong, is not proven. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one watch short reels clue at a time. On its own, each clue is small; the strength comes from how neatly they line up. More usefully, by the end you should be able to avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app, as well as judge the claim yourself.
Each Android app carries a package name: a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the store title does. On Google Play, ShortMax’s listing relies on the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand called ShortMax, that is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. At the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title, developers typically pick the package ID. For that reason, a package spelling out “shorttv” is precisely the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Since the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing, anyone can confirm this clue in seconds. However, a package name by itself only suggests a history and does not document one.
Both app stores’ fine print holds the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. Google Play lists the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, but the legal entity behind it is once again SHORTTV LIMITED, listing an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The company’s terms of service are governed as well by Hong Kong law. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a well-known pattern in app publishing. While it does not prove the brands are the same, it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 in Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. ShortMax showed up in the same month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. Two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a remarkable coincidence. One product that launched once and later traded under a new name explains the overlap more simply. China Daily was still calling Jiuzhou’s English-market app ShortTV in January 2024, a few months after that launch. A shared month is still circumstantial, and that is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.
Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, opening shortmax.com sets off a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. On that destination site you can browse on the web the same dramas the app streams. Companies normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect links both names to one operator. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. Nobody has written it down in a press release, but it is nonetheless the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
The trail ends with a footer. As a rule, copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page carries the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Taken together with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Cautious readers should still treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. Nobody could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer, is the company that stands behind the ShortTV name. A pair of overseas apps were launched by Jiuzhou, according to a January 2024 report in China Daily: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. Per that same report, Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. Of these titles, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series costs, by the company’s figures, $100,000 to $150,000. This mix explains why the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Dating from early 2024, those numbers are best read as a snapshot rather than a current tally. More than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages are now claimed in ShortMax’s own listing, a company figure that has not been independently audited. It is through SHORTTV LIMITED’s ownership trail that this studio connects to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case gets messier at this point. None of the unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The developer field is the only place the differences show up, and most people never read it. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. The table below lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Treat the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller name | Available on | Installs recorded | Connection to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 100M+ in Google Play | Likely the same app; the rename is unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Not related |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not shown | Unrelated |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not recorded | No connection |
With ShortTV and ShortMax appearing to be one product, prices follow the ShortMax listing. As of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro in the US App Store is priced at about $19.99 per week, while a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. One-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, the terms say, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are another complaint from App Store reviewers. Through its own replies on Google Play, the developer admits that its “free trial” wording confused some users. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancellation takes place in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Most mix-ups can be prevented by a few checks that take less than a minute. You want to confirm that you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also lets you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Any site that offers modded versions or “unlimited coins” are best avoided, because those are unofficial and risky. No special tools are needed for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Work through the list below before you tap install.