The Puzzle: Two Names, a Single Suspect
If you type „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 going by the name ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the case this file takes on. The working theory is simple: the app now sold as ShortMax and the ShortTV short max brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia are one and the same. Although the theory is strong, it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has surfaced. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. Taken alone, each clue is small; the strength comes from how neatly they line up. More usefully, by the end you should be able to steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app, and also judge the claim yourself.
Clue One: The Package Name on Android
A package name, a fixed internal ID, comes with every Android app, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is the one ShortMax uses on Google Play. For a brand named ShortMax, that is an strange choice, unless the app began under another name. A package ID is usually picked at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. So a package that spells out „shorttv“ is precisely 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. Taken alone, however, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one.
Second Clue: The Legal Entity Behind It
The fine print of both app stores contains the second clue. On the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. Over 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 the company’s terms of service. A studio renaming its consumer product while keeping the original company name is a well-known 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: The Launch Month
Timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 by Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which appeared in the same month. The overlap is explained more simply by a single product that launched once and later operated under a new name. It would be a notable coincidence for two unrelated brands with nearly identical names to debut within the same few weeks. China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV in January 2024, a few months after that launch. Even so, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly alongside the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Redirect Between Domains
Clue number four is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, loading shortmax.com produces a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. At the destination site you can browse on the web the same dramas the app streams. No part of a permanent redirect is an accident of search results; it is a deliberate server setting. Companies usually point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect links both names to one operator. Nobody has written it down in a press release, but it is still the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line
The last piece of evidence is a footer. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page carries the line „© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED“. Generally, copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. The pattern is hard to read any other way when this is combined with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect. Careful 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.
The Company Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
The company that stands behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Two overseas apps were launched by Jiuzhou, according to a January 2024 report in China Daily: 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. Of those, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, whereas the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series cost, by the company’s figures, $100,000 to $150,000. This blend is why the catalog contains both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Those figures date from early 2024, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a current tally. These days, ShortMax’s own listing claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, but that company figure has not been independently audited. The ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED is what connects this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
Here the case gets messier, 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 developer field is the only place the differences show up, and most people never look at it. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. The table lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Do not treat the icon or title as the real ID; the developer name is the real ID.
| App name in store | Seller or developer | Platforms | Install count | Link to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 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 shown | No connection |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Not related |
The Price of It
Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, since ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product. As of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro in the US App Store is priced at about $19.99 a week, while a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. One-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. It was not possible to verify monthly or yearly plans, as the US store shows only weekly passes. Passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Another complaint from App Store reviewers concerns episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. In its own replies on Google Play, the developer acknowledges that its „free trial“ wording confused some users. Cancelling is done in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Tap Install: A Quick Checklist
A few checks take less than a minute and prevent most mix-ups. The goal is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also lets you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. No special tools are needed for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Since they are unofficial and risky, avoid any site offering modded versions or „unlimited coins“. Run through the list below before you tap install.
- Make sure that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Confirm that the Google Play install count shows 100M+.
- To check current weekly pass prices in your country, check the in-app purchase list.
- Remember 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.