I am both a novice with product placement understand and living in a country (UK), with a probably rare TV channel (still very popular), in the UK, called the BBC.
Funny, as I'm living on the same Island, and I'm very familiar with the special traits of its society.
They raise money by yearly TV licence fees (£145.50 / year), and absolutely BAN any kind of advertising on the channel. Absolutely no adverts, at all, ever (ignoring adverts for other BBC programs and charities, news items).
They have very strict rules, but I completely agree, that it might be relatively unique to us, who live in the UK.
Actually, that's not unique, it has been this way in many countries, and still is in some (i.e. German public television had no commerials, but that got relaxed later on to some extend).
But what you ignore here is that showing a product isn't necessarily advertising. Showing a real product in a fictional scene is fine (even in the UK, and yes, even for the BBC!) when the product is authentic in its environment. It only becomes advertisement if the product is placed there for the product's sake and not because of the story.
Your part about the BBC not permitted to produce commercials (it does advertise its own program, though) is irrelevant as even in BBC programs you'll see plenty of branded products in and out. And it would be silly if that wasn't the case.
Just because you are living in the UK (presumably because of your forum flag), and know some stuff, does not necessarly mean that everyone else knows about it. I am not that interested in exactly how the BBC works, so you could easily know stuff, that I don't about it.
I did not realize that other countries had organizations, similar to the BBC. If asked before reading your response, I would have probably said I'm unsure.
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