The Mystery: One Suspect, Two Names
If you enter “short tv” into an app store, you see a crowd of look-alike apps, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. Untangling that tangle Supernatural Romance drama is the whole case this file sets out to crack. The working theory is a simple one: the app now sold as ShortMax and the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia are one and the same. No official rename announcement has turned up, so the theory, though strong, is not proven. Instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. Each of the clues is small on its own, so the weight comes from how neatly they line up. When you reach the end, you should be able to judge the claim yourself and, even more usefully, steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app.
The First Clue: The Package Name on Android
The package name is a fixed internal ID that every Android app carries, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. ShortMax’s listing on Google Play uses the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand called ShortMax, that is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. A package ID is usually set at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package that spells out “shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Because the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing, this clue can be confirmed by anyone in seconds. On its own, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one.
The Second Clue: The Legal Entity
The second clue is found in the fine print of both app stores. The App Store lists SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Google Play shows the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, yet the legal entity behind it is once more SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong law also governs its terms of service. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a common pattern in app publishing. It puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax, even though it does not prove the brands are the same.
Third Clue: The Launch Month
The third thread comes down to timing. According to Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV launched in September 2023. The same month saw ShortMax appear, with Google Play giving September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. A simpler explanation for the overlap is a single product that launched once and later traded under a new name. Near-identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would make for a striking coincidence. Only a few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. A shared month is still circumstantial, which is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Redirect Between Domains
Because it happens in your browser, the fourth clue is the easiest to check. As of September 2026, anyone visiting shortmax.com is sent to shorttv.live through a permanent 301 redirect. The same dramas the app streams can be browsed on the destination site in a web browser. A permanent redirect like this is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Companies usually point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect connects both names to one operator. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, it is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line
The final clue is a footer. The name in a copyright notice is usually the one that actually owns the content and the site. Over on the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page displays the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Place the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect alongside it, and the pattern is hard to read any other way. Cautious readers should nevertheless treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. Nobody could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company might describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture
The company behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. A January 2024 report in China Daily stated that Jiuzhou had launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. The same report stated Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. About 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series cost, by the company’s own figures, $100,000 to $150,000. Dubbed Chinese stories as well as locally shot originals sit in the catalog, and that mix explains it. More than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages is what ShortMax’s own listing now claims, a company figure that has not been independently audited. Dating from early 2024, those figures are best read as a snapshot rather than a current tally. It is through SHORTTV LIMITED’s ownership trail that this studio connects to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The Problem With Look-Alike Apps
At this point the case gets messier, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the several unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Most people never look at the developer field, which is the only place the differences show up. The developer names recorded in the store listings are listed in the table as of September 2026. Don’t treat the icon or title as the real ID; the developer name is the real ID.
| App name in store | Developer or seller | Platform | Installs | Tie to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 100M+ in Google Play | Likely the same app; rename unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Unrelated |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not shown | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Not related |
How Much It Costs
With ShortTV and ShortMax appearing to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. In the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro costs about $19.99 a week, with a cheaper tier at about $9.99. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. One-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices differ by country, platform and promotion. Passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. The “free trial” wording confused some users, which the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. Episodes that cost up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are another complaint from App Store reviewers. To cancel, use the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before Installing: A Short Checklist
Most mix-ups can be avoided with a few checks that take less than a minute. The idea is to confirm that you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. The pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. You do not need special tools for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Steer clear of any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. Before you tap install, run through the list below.
- Confirm the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Confirm that the Google Play install count shows 100M+.
- Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Keep in mind that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- Avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.
