Nadao Bangkok

Nadao Bangkok Co., Ltd. was registered on September 9, 2009.[1] The company was founded as a partially owned subsidiary of film studio GMM Tai Hub (GTH) to manage its growing roster of actors and help develop their talents. It was headed by Songyos Sugmakanan, who had directed several films with GTH.[2]

During its first few years, the company focused on casting and artist management, but struggled to generate revenue. In 2012, Songyos conceived the teen drama television series Hormones to create acting opportunities for the company's teenage actors. The series, released in 2013, became widely popular, prompting the company to produce two subsequent seasons. Hormones's success became a turning point for Nadao, giving it a renewed focus on content production for television as well as the streaming service Line TV, for whose 2015 launch Nadao produced the miniseries Stay.[2]

As GTH was dissolved at the end of 2015 due to internal disagreements, its holdings in Nadao Bangkok were transferred to its successor GDH 559. Nadao further expanded as it partnered with concert organizer 4nologue to launch the boy group Nine by Nine in 2018, releasing its first mainstream prime-time series In Family We Trust as part of the project. By 2020, its staff had grown to fifty, up from eight during the creation of Hormones.[2]

The company launched an in-house record label, Nadao Music, as a business unit in 2019. Aimed at opening up opportunities in music to its artists, its first release, "Rak Tid Siren" (รักติดไซเรน, "My Ambulance"), the soundtrack to its 2019 series My Ambulance, became one of the most popular songs of the year.[3] Singer Supol Phuasirirak was brought on as the unit's director and main producer. The company also launched a talent development unit, titled Nadao Academy, to recruit new members, in 2020.[4]

Nadao Bangkok is 40% owned by Songyos, who serves as its CEO, 30% by GDH, 10% by Hub Ho Hin Bangkok (GDH's minority owner), and 20% by others (as of 2020).[5] Its board of directors include Boosaba Daorueng (CEO of GDH's majority owner GMM Grammy), Jina Osothsilp (CEO of GDH), Songyos, Rojjarek Luerojwong, and Jongjit Inthung (Nadao's senior artist manager). The company has an authorized capital of 2 million baht (US$60,000 in 2009), and is headquartered at 92/14 Soi Sukhumvit 31, Khlong Ton Nuea Subdistrict, Watthana District, Bangkok.[1]

Nadao does business in three main areas: artist management, production, and music. The company generated a revenue of 370 million baht in 2019.[4] Of this, 60–70 percent comes from its artist management business, and the rest from production. (The music unit has not yet become profitable, as of October 2020.) However, its production business yields higher profit margins of 20–30 percent, while artist management yields 8–15 percent.[2]

With Songyos and his team's background in film, Nadao regularly employs filmmaking techniques in its creative process rather than those typical of traditional television productions. This has resulted in higher costs (production of Nadao series cost about 2.5 million baht per episode, compared to 1.4–1.5 million for most mainstream prime-time series) which limit the company's capacity, though Songyos insists on maintaining quality as a distinctive feature of their output.[2]

As of 1 January 2022, the company had 28 actors signed under its label.[6][7] Most are young actors, catering to Nadao and GDH's target audience group of 15–30-year-olds.[4]

• Nadao Bangkok on Facebook
• Nadao Bangkok on Instagram
• Nadao Bangkok on Twitter
• Nadao Bangkok's channel on YouTube