The Case: One Suspect, Two Names
Search “short tv” in an app store and you get a crowd 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 sets out to crack. The working hypothesis is simple: the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app now sold as ShortMax are one and the same. It is a strong theory, but it is not proven, as no official rename announcement has turned up. So rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we Mair Mulroney short films will go through the public records one clue at a time. The weight comes from how neatly the clues line up, since each one is small on its own. When you reach the end, you should be able to judge the claim yourself and, even more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
Clue One: The Package Name on Android
Any Android app comes with a package name, a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is what ShortMax uses on Google Play. For a brand called ShortMax, this is an strange choice, unless the app started life under another name. At the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title, developers typically choose the package ID. The kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package that spells out “shorttv”. By itself, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one. Anyone can confirm this clue in seconds, because the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing.
Second Clue: The Entity on Record
The second clue lies in the fine print of both app stores. In the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. The developer appears as SHORTMAX LIMITED on Google Play, but the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The company’s terms of service, as well, are governed by Hong Kong law. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a common pattern in app publishing. That does not prove the brands are the same, but it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Third Clue: When It Launched
Timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 by Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. That same month, ShortMax appeared: Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives September 11, 2023. A single product that launched once and later traded under a new name explains the overlap more simply. A pair of unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a striking coincidence. 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 when combined with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Redirect Between Domains
Clue number four is the easiest to verify, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, visiting shortmax.com triggers a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. The destination site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. A permanent redirect is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. The redirect ties both names to one operator, because companies normally point a domain only at property they control. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this 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 shows the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. When you add the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. That said, careful readers should treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. The company might describe its brands differently in the future, and no official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found.
Who Is Behind 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 launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. That report also said Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. About 80% of them were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series costs, by the company’s own figures, $100,000 to $150,000. This mix explains why the catalog contains both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. ShortMax’s own listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, a company figure that has not been independently audited. These numbers date from early 2024, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a current tally. The ownership trail running through SHORTTV LIMITED is what connects this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The Look-Alike Apps Problem
The case gets messier here, as the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the unrelated developers who publish apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. One of these can easily get installed instead by someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team. Only the developer field, which most people never read, reveals the differences. The table lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Regard the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in store | Developer or seller name | Platform | Installs recorded | Link to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | iOS and Android | 100M+ in Google Play | Likely the same app; the rename is 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
Because ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, pricing follows 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. Monthly or yearly plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Single purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Per the terms, passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Reviewers on the App Store also complain about episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. The developer’s own responses on Google Play admit that its “free trial” wording confused some users. Cancellation happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Install: A Short Checklist
A few checks take less than a minute and prevent most mix-ups. Confirming you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike is the whole point. The pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Sites offering modded versions or “unlimited coins” are best avoided, since those are unofficial and risky. None of these steps needs special tools, only the store page itself. This list is worth going through before you tap install.
- Confirm that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check that the Google Play install count sits at 100M+.
- Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Note that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- Pass on any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.
