The Mystery: Two Names, a Single Suspect

Type “short tv” in an app store and you find a swarm of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. The case this file attempts to untangle is that tangle. The working theory is a simple one: the app now sold as ShortMax and the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia are one and the same. Strong as the theory is, it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has turned up. Instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. The weight reelshorttv.org/series/freed-by-the-sexy-farmer comes from how neatly the clues line up, as each one is small on its own. 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

Each Android app has a package name: a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the store title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is the one ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses. Unless the app began under another name, this is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax. The package ID is usually picked at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. The kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package name that spells out “shorttv”. Still, a package name by itself only suggests a history but does not document one. Anyone can verify this clue in seconds: the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing.

The Second Clue: The Legal Entity

Buried in the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. The developer is shown as SHORTMAX LIMITED on Google Play, while the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The company’s terms of service, as well, are governed by Hong Kong law. Studios often rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a common pattern in app publishing. It 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 Month of Launch

The timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 by Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives 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 operated under a new name. Near-identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would make for a remarkable coincidence. A few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still calling Jiuzhou’s English-market app ShortTV. Still, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly alongside the other clues.

Clue Four: The Web Domain Redirect

The fourth clue is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, a permanent 301 redirect forwards visitors of shortmax.com to shorttv.live. Browsing on the web of the same dramas the app streams is offered on that destination site. A permanent redirect is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Since companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect connects both names to one operator. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.

The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line

A footer is the last piece of evidence. The line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED” shows up on a ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site. The entity named in a copyright notice is usually the one 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. That said, careful readers should 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.

Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture

The company behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Two overseas apps were launched by Jiuzhou, per a January 2024 report in China Daily: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. More than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets had been made by Jiuzhou, the same report said. Of those, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, whereas the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. The company placed the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. This blend is the reason the catalog contains both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Dating from early 2024, those numbers are best read as a snapshot rather than a current tally. These days, ShortMax’s own listing claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, though this company figure 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 Problem With Look-Alike Apps

The case gets messier here, since the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the several unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The differences between them show up only in the developer field, which most people never read. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Developer names as recorded in the store listings are listed in the table as of September 2026. The real ID is the developer name, not the icon or title.

Store app name	Developer or seller name	Platforms	Installs recorded	Connection to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV
ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps)	SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong	Android and iOS	100M+ via Google Play	Likely the same app; rename unconfirmed
ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts	HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC	Android	1M+	No connection
Short TV – Drama & Shorts	BullFX	Android	Not listed	No connection
Shortv	Instant Shadow Limited	iOS	Not recorded	No connection

The Price of It

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 costs about $19.99 per week, and a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. One-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. The terms state passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. App Store reviewers also complain about episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. The “free trial” wording confused some users, as the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. You cancel in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.

Before Installing: A Short Checklist

A handful of checks take less than a minute and prevent most mix-ups. The point is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. The pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Just the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Any site that offers modded versions or “unlimited coins” are best avoided, since those are unofficial and risky. The list below is worth going through before you tap install.

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