The Mystery: Two Names, One Suspect
If you type «short tv» into an app store, you are met with a crowd of look-alike apps, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit drama box movies series app going by the name ShortMax. That knot is the case this case file sets out to untangle. Put simply, the working theory holds that the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia and the app currently sold as ShortMax are one and the same. It is a strong theory, yet it is not proven, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. So rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will walk through the public records one clue at a time. Each clue is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. By the end you should be able to judge the claim yourself and, more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
First Clue: The Android Package Name
Each Android app carries a package name: a fixed internal ID that rarely changes even when the store title does. ShortMax’s listing on Google Play uses the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand named ShortMax, this is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. The package ID is usually set at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package name that spells out «shorttv» is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Anyone can verify this clue in seconds: the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing. The package name, by itself, does not document a history; it only suggests one.
Second Clue: The Legal Entity Behind It
In the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. Over on Google Play the developer is shown as SHORTMAX LIMITED, while the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong law also governs the company’s terms of service. Studios often rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a pattern familiar in app publishing. Even if it does not prove the brands are the same, it places ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Third Clue: The Launch Month
The third thread concerns timing. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 by Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. ShortMax arrived in the same month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. The overlap is more simply explained by a single product that launched once and later operated under a new name. If two unrelated brands with nearly identical names debuting within the same few weeks, that would be a remarkable 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 when combined with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect
Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com gets sent to shorttv.live through a permanent 301 redirect. Web browsing of the same dramas the app streams is available on that destination site. A permanent redirect is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Since companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect ties both names to one operator. Nobody has written it down in a press release, yet it is nonetheless the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
Clue Five: The Copyright Line
A page footer is the final piece of evidence. The entity named in a copyright notice is usually the one that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page displays the line «© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED». Put the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect next to it, and the pattern is hard to read any other way. The rename should still be treated by careful readers as likely but unconfirmed. No official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found, and the company might describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Is Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
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, per a January 2024 report in China Daily: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. According to the same report, Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. About 80% of those were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. The company placed the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. That mix is the reason the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Treat those numbers as a snapshot rather than a current tally, because they date from early 2024. Over 50,000 dramas in 19 languages are now claimed in ShortMax’s own listing, a company figure that has not been independently audited. What links this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today is the ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Look-Alike Apps Problem
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier here. None of the unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Only the developer field, which most people never read, shows the differences. It is easy for someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Below, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. The real ID is the developer name, not the icon or title.
| Store app name | Seller or developer | Available on | Install count | Tie to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Both iOS and Android | 100M+ on Google Play | Likely the same app; rename unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | No connection |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not recorded | Unrelated |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not recorded | No connection |
What You Will Pay
Given that 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 costs about $19.99 per week, while a cheaper tier costs about $9.99. Because the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or annual plans could not be verified. One-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices differ by country, platform and promotion. The terms say 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. Its «free trial» wording confused some users, which the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. You cancel in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Tap Install: A Short Checklist
Most mix-ups are prevented by a few checks that take less than a minute. Making sure you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike is the goal. The pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Any site offering modded versions or «unlimited coins» is pushing something unofficial and risky, so stay away from it. No special tools are needed for any of these steps, 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 install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- Read the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.