ADVERTISERS in America may have to pay a record price to advertise during the last episode of the sit-com Seinfeld.

A New York prostitute known to specialise in sado-masochism could scupper the career of one of America's best-known sports commentators - from beyond the grave. Nadia Frey, described by New York tabloid papers as the "Manhattan dominatrix", was found dead, in her West Side apartment at the weekend. In the room were all the tools of her trade - whips, chains, leathers and so on - but also, crucially, her contacts book.

NBC, the American television network, and Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, announced two joint ventures yesterday to develop a 24-hour cable news unit and an online news service for the Internet.

GE plays hard-to-get over NBC

NBC Super Channel, the US-owned international cable and satellite television channel, is to launch an Asian service next month, out of Hong Kong.

Embarrassment over at NBC Super Channel, which is launching a swanky business TV programme next Monday. European Money Wheel is aimed at top-flight European business types who want to keep up with the markets and the latest news.

You get a free Pinewood pencil with your Pinewood Studios pack. Also a flyer from the James Bond Collectors' Club ('At last it's Back - Bond's Deadly DB5, a new range of James Bond toiletries for men]') and a map indicating where you are not allowed to go ('failure to comply with these regulations could result in your expulsion from the event'). Also a sticker (green).

Lawrence Spivak, broadcaster, died Washington 9 March, aged 93. Built a reputation for tough questioning as originator and moderator of NBC's Sunday news show Meet the Press, 1947-75.

Sir: Niall Meeban objected in your columns (letter, 5 February) to the 'censoring' of Gerry Adams by NBC Super Channel, and invited us to clarify our position. NBC Super Channel, like all European satellite broadcasters, is regulated both by the European Directive on Broadcasting (Television Without Frontiers) and by the legislation of the country from which its transmissions are 'uplinked' to the satellite covering the European market. NBC Super Channel uplinks from the UK to the Eutelsat 2 F1 satellite, and is licensed to this effect by the ITC as a 'non-domestic satellite service'.

Hugh Wedlock Jnr, writer: born 1908; died 13 December 1993.

NBC, the American television network controlled by General Electric, has taken a majority stake in Super Channel, the satellite service that is currently received in 56 million European homes.

NEW YORK - The comedian Bill Cosby is again assembling a bid to buy NBC, the American television network that for many years carried his programmes, despite protests by its owners, the US General Electric corporation, that it is not for sale.

At least nine people were wounded when a sniper, apparently unhappy about his former job, opened fire with a high- powered rifle on the headquarters of the MCA entertainment conglomerate at Universal Studios, Hollywood, AP reports from Los Angeles. John Brian Jarvis, 58, of Pleasanton, a former studio driver, was arrested without a struggle.

NEW YORK - NBC, the struggling US television network that has been the object of rumours for almost two years, is not up for sale, its owner, General Electric Company of the US, said yesterday, writes Larry Black.