The Puzzle: Two Names, a Single Suspect

A search for “short tv” in an app store brings up a crowd of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the whole case this file takes on. The working hypothesis is a simple one: the app now sold as ShortMax romance drama app and the ShortTV 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, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. Instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. Each of the clues is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they fit together. By the end, you should be able to judge the claim on your own and, even more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.

The First Clue: The Android Package Name

A package name, a fixed internal ID, comes with every Android app, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is the one ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses. For a brand called ShortMax, that is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. The package ID is usually chosen at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. The sort of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package name that spells out “shorttv”. Anyone can check this clue in seconds: the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing. Still, a package name by itself only suggests a history and does not document one.

Clue Two: The Legal Entity Behind It

Both app stores’ fine print holds the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. Although Google Play lists 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. 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. 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: When It Launched

The third thread concerns timing. According to Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV launched in September 2023. That same month, ShortMax arrived: Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives September 11, 2023. The simpler explanation of the overlap is a single product that launched once and later traded under a new name. Near-identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would be a remarkable coincidence. In January 2024, a few months after that launch, China Daily was still calling Jiuzhou’s English-market app ShortTV. Still, a shared month is circumstantial, which is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.

Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect

Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com gets sent to shorttv.live by a permanent 301 redirect. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on that destination site in a web browser. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. The redirect links both names to one operator, since companies usually point a domain only at property they control. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.

Clue Five: The Copyright Footer

A footer is the last piece of evidence. As a rule, copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page displays the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Once you add the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Careful readers should nevertheless 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.

Who Is Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture

Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer, is the company behind the ShortTV name. A January 2024 report in China Daily stated that Jiuzhou had launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. The same report said Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. Of these titles, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. The company put the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. Both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals appear in the catalog, and that mix explains it. Read those figures as a snapshot rather than a current tally, since 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. This studio is linked to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today by the ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED.

The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps

The case gets messier here, 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. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Most people never read the developer field, which is the only place the differences show up. The table below lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Don’t treat the icon or title as the real ID; the developer name is the real ID.

What It Costs

Because ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. In the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro is priced at about $19.99 a week, with a cheaper tier at about $9.99. One-time purchases go from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices differ by country, platform and promotion. It was not possible to verify monthly or yearly plans, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Under the terms, passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are denied 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. Episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are also a complaint from App Store reviewers. To cancel, use the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.

Before You Install: A Brief Checklist

Most mix-ups can be avoided with a few checks taking less than a minute. You want to confirm that 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. None of these steps requires special tools, only the store page itself. A site that offers modded versions or “unlimited coins” is offering something unofficial and risky, so stay away from it. This list is worth going through before you tap install.

1. Confirm the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
2. Confirm that the Google Play install count shows 100M+.
3. To see current weekly pass prices in your country, read the in-app purchase list.
4. Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
5. However similar the title, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.