The Mystery: Two Names, a Single Suspect
A search for “short tv” in an app store brings up a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, buried somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. The case this file tries to untangle is that very knot. 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. Although He Took a Mistress I Took the Sky the theory is strong, it is not proven, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will walk through the public records one clue at a time. Every clue is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. You should be able to judge the claim yourself by the end and, more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
The First Clue: The Android Package ID
Every Android app has a package name: a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even if the store title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is what ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses. Unless the app began under another name, this is an curious choice for a brand called ShortMax. Right at the start, before marketing settles on a final title, developers typically pick the package ID. A package that spells out “shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Taken alone, however, 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 Legal Entity
In the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. On Google Play the developer is listed 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 its terms of service. It is common for studios to rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a pattern familiar 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.
The Third Clue: When It Launched
The third thread concerns timing. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 by Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which arrived in the same month. The overlap is explained more simply by a single product that launched once and later traded under a new name. Two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a striking coincidence. 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.
Clue Four: The Redirect Between Domains
Among the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, visiting shortmax.com sets off a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. At the destination site you can browse online the same dramas the app streams. A permanent redirect like this is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Companies normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect connects both names to one operator. Nobody has written it down in a press release, but this is nonetheless the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Notice
A page footer is the last piece of evidence. Copyright lines tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. The line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED” appears on a ShortMax page of the shorttv.live site. When you add the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Still, careful readers should treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. The company may describe its brands differently in the future, and no official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found.
The Company Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
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. Of those, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. A 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. Now, ShortMax’s own listing advertises more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, a company figure that has not been independently audited. Treat those numbers as a snapshot rather than a current tally, since they date from early 2024. It is through SHORTTV LIMITED’s ownership trail that this studio connects to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier at this point. Not one of the apps with nearly identical titles from several unrelated developers is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The developer field is the only place the differences show up, and most people never read it. A person looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team can easily install one of these instead. In the table, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Use the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller | Available on | Install count | Tie 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; rename not confirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | No connection |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not listed | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Not related |
What It Costs
With ShortTV and ShortMax appearing to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. On the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro is listed at about $19.99 a week, and a cheaper tier comes in at about $9.99. We could not verify monthly or yearly plans, as the US store lists only weekly passes. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99. Under the terms, passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, 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. The “free trial” wording confused some users, as the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancellation happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Before Installing: A Brief Checklist
In less than a minute, a few checks prevent most mix-ups. The aim is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also helps you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Stay away from any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. None of these steps requires special tools, only the store page itself. Before you tap install, work through the list below.
- Verify the developer or seller shows SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Verify that the Google Play install count is at 100M+.
- Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Note that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.
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