Despite complaints from viewers, integration might just be the saviour we need.
In this edition of Media McKnight:
- Product placement boom
- GQ Men of the Year Awards axed
- Screen Queensland’s Willy Wonka Sydney slip-up
- Who was really the first person on Australian TV?
You can watch the video edition of MEDIA McKNIGHT in the YouTube player below:
PRODUCT PLACEMENT IS BOOMING
If you’ve ever thought Australian TV is oversaturated with product placement, you’re right.
All those not-so-subtle ads in The Block, My Kitchen Rules, MasterChef and the like are forecast to generate $1.4 billion for the media sector. AdNews reports The Global Product Placement Forecast 2026-2030 says 2026 will be the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth, following the pandemic decline of 2020.
Only Brazil, Mexico and the US also exceed $1 billion in product placement spending.
Look, it’s the cash injection local media desperately needs.
Despite strong ratings on free-to-air, advertisers keep funnelling their money to other platforms like streaming. The problem isn’t a lack of audience. It’s a lack of revenue.
It’s not just TV enjoying the spoils of product integration, but the medium takes the lion’s share, valued at $26.16 billion in 2025. There’s no doubt this means more integration, and not just in reality shows.
Morning shows already run four-minute advertorials on top of the commercial breaks. Breakfast shows have weather sponsors and the like. Now Today has gone one step further, with hosts Tom Steinfort and Sylvia Jeffreys spruiking products during what was once seen as a serious news program.
This isn’t the future. It’s happening now, and there’s no sign of it stopping.
GQ’S MEN OF THE YEAR IS DEAD
One of the biggest parties in Sydney each year was the GQ Men of the Year Awards. When I was working in the Sydney media, it was one of the few events I’d attend despite the early wake-up call the next morning.
So, there will be a lot of sadness in Sin City, with reports the awards have been axed.
The Rear Window column reports News Corp’s official line is an issue with dates. Last year’s awards were set for December, but were postponed after the Bondi terror attacks and held in March this year. The company says it feels it’s too soon for another one.
But there’s no doubt budget is playing a major factor. It’s a big, expensive party. The awards helped draw in sponsors, but the AFR says discretionary budgets have tightened and the money for events like this is no longer there.
GQ magazine itself is essentially gone, now reduced to a quarterly within The Australian.
The awards were always the best party in town, so it’s no real surprise their time has come.
It’s just the state of the industry.
SCREEN QUEENSLAND PROMOTES… SYDNEY?
The shooting of the Netflix reality series Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket here in Australia was a massive gift for the local industry. There were problems on set, which I’ve previously reported on in Media McKnight, but it was a big-budget production that provided a lot of work.
The show was a reality version of the classic Gene Wilder film, but the whole thing felt fake.
It was obvious contestants had to fake their reactions to “winning” a golden ticket, especially considering Netflix shot the scenes from multiple angles. I mean, what great coverage to get on the run!
Then contestants had to pretend they’d been “transported” into a new studio via Wonkavision. They reacted as if they’d suddenly appeared in a game show, when they’d simply been walked across to another studio.
That fakeness destroyed the viewer’s suspension of disbelief, because you could never be sure what else had been faked.
In fact, my kids and I ended up hate-watching it, but we were keen to find out who won. So we were invested, I guess.
Now that Netflix has released all the episodes, cast and crew are posting behind-the-scenes shots. The Screen Queensland Instagram account proudly shows stills from the series, with a caption saying:
The reality competition series from @eureka.productions was filmed at @villageroadshowstudios and sees players navigate games, tests and temptations in a chocolate factory beyond your wildest dreams, all brought to life by Queensland’s skilled artisans and crew.
But the montage also included an exterior shot taken at the White Bay Power Station.
In Sydney.
And it wasn’t a one-off. There were three shots of the Sydney exterior.
Three.
It’s not the biggest crime in the world, but if you’re trying to promote a Queensland shoot, I’d suggest leaving out the pictures of Sydney.
WHO WAS REALLY FIRST ON AUSTRALIAN TV?
Australian TV has been celebrating its 70th anniversary, and if you ask any fan who the first person on TV in this country was, they’ll tell you Bruce Gyngell, of course.
Channel 7 is challenging that notion with some unearthed archival vision.
Its 7NEWS report says that since 1956 we’ve been told the first face on Australian TV was Gyngell. But 22 years earlier, silent movie star Janet Gaynor claimed the honour with the premiere of Australian television in 1934. The report also says it was the first full television licence, not just in Australia but in the Southern Hemisphere.
The vision shows what TV looked like back then: a tiny screen with a big future. An X-ray technician broadcast pictures from Brisbane to viewers in Sydney and Melbourne, and one of the early thrills was a loaned piece of film showing Mickey Mouse playing the piano.
The station then settled into two hours a day, from 7:30 to 9:30pm, before the war made television a casualty and peacetime gave it a reboot.
It’s fascinating history, but I think Gyngell still holds the title, as his broadcast launched the first continuous TV station. I don’t think test broadcasts count.
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