If you type “short tv” into an app store, you see a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app going by the name ShortMax. That knot is the case this case file attempts to untangle. In simple https://www.reelshorts.org/where-to-watch/dear-brother-you-loved-me-too-late/ terms, the working theory holds that the ShortTV brand a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app currently sold as ShortMax are one and the same. The theory is strong, but it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has appeared. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. The clues are each small on their 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, more usefully, steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app.
The package name is a fixed internal ID that every Android app carries, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. On Google Play, ShortMax’s listing relies on the package live.shorttv.apps. Unless the app began under another name, that is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax. At the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title, developers usually choose the package ID. The sort of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package that spells out “shorttv”. However, a package name on its own only suggests a history and does not document one. Anyone can check this clue in seconds: the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing.
In the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. On the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. 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. Its terms of service, too, are governed by Hong Kong law. A studio renaming its consumer product while keeping the original company name is a well-known pattern in app publishing. This does not prove the brands are the same, but it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
The third thread concerns timing. Baidu’s encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which appeared in the same month. Were two unrelated brands with nearly identical names to debut within the same few weeks, that would be a remarkable coincidence. The simpler explanation of the overlap is one product that launched once and later traded under a new name. China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as 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.
Because it happens in your browser, the fourth clue is the easiest to verify. As of September 2026, loading shortmax.com produces a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on the destination site on the web. Because companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect connects 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 still the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
A footer is the last piece of evidence. The name in a copyright notice is usually the one that actually owns the content and the site. The line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED” appears on a ShortMax page of the shorttv.live site. Put 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. The company might describe its brands differently in the future, and no official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found.
The company that stands behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Two overseas apps were launched by Jiuzhou, per a January 2024 report in China Daily: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. Over 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets had been produced by Jiuzhou, according to the same report. About 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. The company put the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. Both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals appear in the catalog, and that mix explains it. Over 50,000 dramas in 19 languages is what ShortMax’s own listing now claims, a company figure that has not been independently audited. Read those numbers as a snapshot rather than a current tally, because they date from early 2024. The ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED is what connects this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The case gets messier here, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the several unrelated developers who publish apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The differences between them show up only in the developer field, which most people never read. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Developer names as recorded in the store listings are listed in the table as of September 2026. Regard the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in the store | Seller or developer | Platforms | Installs | Connection to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Both iOS and Android | 100M+ via 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 recorded | No connection |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not listed | Unrelated |
Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, since ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product. 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. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. The terms state 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. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancellation takes place in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
In less than a minute, a few checks prevent most mix-ups. The point is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. Before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish, it also helps you spot the pricing traps. Stay away from any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. Only the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Run through the list below before you tap install.