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The Case: Two Names, One Suspect

If you type “short tv” into an app store, you see a crowd of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app going by the name ShortMax. That tangle is the case this case file attempts to untangle. Put simply, the working theory says that the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer Spark Me Tenderly free for the US, Canada and Australia and the app now sold as ShortMax are one and the same. No official rename announcement has turned up, so the theory, though strong, is not proven. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will walk through the public records one clue at a time. Each piece of evidence is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. By the finish you should be able to judge the claim yourself and, more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.

Clue One: The Android Package ID

A package name is a fixed internal ID that every Android app carries, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. On Google Play, ShortMax’s listing relies on the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand called ShortMax, this is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. A package ID is usually set at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package that spells out “shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Anyone can confirm this clue in seconds, because the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing. On its own, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one.

Second Clue: The Entity on Record

Both app stores’ fine print contains the second clue. In the App Store, ShortMax’s seller 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, as well, are governed by Hong Kong law. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a common pattern in app publishing. It puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax, though it does not prove the brands are the same.

Third Clue: The Launch Month

The third thread concerns timing. 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 simpler explanation of the overlap is a single product that launched once and later traded under a new name. Nearly identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would make for 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 alongside the other clues.

Clue Four: The Web Domain Redirect

Among the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com is sent to shorttv.live through a permanent 301 redirect. The destination site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect ties both names to one operator. Nothing about a permanent redirect is an accident of search results; it is a deliberate server setting. Although nobody has written it down in a press release, it is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.

Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line

The final clue is a footer. Over on the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page shows the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Generally, copyright notices name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. When you add the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Cautious readers should still treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. No one 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

Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer, is the company behind the ShortTV name. According to a January 2024 report in China Daily, Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. Per that same report, Jiuzhou had made more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. Of these titles, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, whereas the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. A 70-episode short series costs, by the company’s own figures, $100,000 to $150,000. That mix is why the catalog carries 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. ShortMax’s own store listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, a company figure that has not been independently audited. What connects 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 gets messier here. Apps with nearly identical titles come from several unrelated developers, and none of them is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. One of these can easily end up installed instead by anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team. Most people never read the developer field, and that is the only place the differences show up. The table lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Treat the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.

What You Will Pay

Because ShortTV and ShortMax appear 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 sits at about $9.99. One-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Since the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or yearly plans could not be verified. Passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. The “free trial” wording confused some users, as the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. App Store reviewers also complain about episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. To cancel, use the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.

Before You Install: A Short Checklist

Most mix-ups are prevented by a few checks taking less than a minute. Making sure you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike is the goal. It also lets you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Steer clear of any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. None of these steps needs special tools, only the store page itself. Work through the list below before you tap install.

1. Verify the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
2. Check the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
3. Read the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
4. Remember that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
5. Avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.