The Mystery: Two Names, a Single Suspect
Type “short tv” into an app store and you are shown a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. That knot is the case this file tries to untangle. 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. This theory is strong, but it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has surfaced. So we will work through the public records one clue at a time instead of taking anyone’s word for www.reelshortwebsite.com/series/brothers-by-chance-lovers-by-choice it. The clues are each small on their own, so the weight comes from how neatly they fit together. You should be able to judge the claim yourself by the end and, more usefully, steer clear of the wrong short tv drama app.
The First Clue: The Package Name on Android
Every Android app comes with a package name, a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the storefront title does. ShortMax’s listing on Google Play uses the package live.shorttv.apps. That’s an curious choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. Developers usually choose the package ID at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. For that reason, a package that spells out “shorttv” is precisely 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, since the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing.
Second Clue: The Entity on Record
Both app stores’ fine print holds the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. While Google Play shows the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Its terms of service, too, are governed by Hong Kong law. It is common for studios to rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a common pattern in app publishing. This puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax, though it does not prove the brands are the same.
Clue Three: The Month of Launch
The third thread is timing. Baidu’s online encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which arrived in the same month. The overlap is more simply explained by a single product that launched once and later operated under a new name. Were two unrelated brands with near-identical names to debut within the same few weeks, that would be a striking coincidence. In January 2024, a few months after that launch, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. Even so, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly when combined with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Redirect Between Domains
Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, a permanent 301 redirect forwards visitors of shortmax.com to shorttv.live. That destination site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. The redirect links both names to one operator, since companies usually point a domain only at property they control. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
Fifth Clue: The Copyright Notice
A page footer is the final piece of evidence. The name in a copyright notice tends to be 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”. Combined with 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. Nobody could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
The Company Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
Behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps, according to 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% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and 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. Over 50,000 dramas in 19 languages are now claimed in ShortMax’s own listing, 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. This studio is linked to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today by 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 gets messier at this point. Apps with nearly identical titles are published by several unrelated developers, and none of them 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, shows the differences. Below, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Don’t treat the icon or title as the real ID; treat the developer name as the real ID.
| Store app name | Seller or developer | Platforms | Installs recorded | 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 not confirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Unrelated |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not recorded | No connection |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not recorded | Not related |
What You Will Pay
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. Monthly or yearly plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. One-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99, with prices varying by country, platform and promotion. Per the terms, passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. In its own replies on Google Play, the developer admits that its “free trial” wording confused some users. A further complaint from App Store reviewers involves episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. 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 Short Checklist
Most mix-ups can be prevented by a handful of checks that take less than a minute. The idea is to confirm that 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. You do not need special tools 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”. The list below is worth running through before you tap install.
- Check that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Make sure the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- To see current weekly pass prices in your country, read the in-app purchase list.
- Remember that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above.