Sky denies Kirch TV bid

Britain's top pay TV operator BSkyB has denied that it was interested in buying the pay-TV unit of German media group Kirch, in which it already has a 22 percent stake.

A KirchPayTV source earlier said the pay-TV operation was holding off filing for insolvency because of clear signs that Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB was looking into buying it.

"We are denying it," a BSkyB spokesman said, declining to elaborate further.

BSkyB has said it remained focused on exercising its share option to sell the KirchPayTV stake back. The KirchPayTV source said it had clear signs that BSkyB was in talks with creditor banks about a takeover, but that an insolvency filing could come later this week.

Kirch's pay-television unit, which has said it has 900 million euros of debt of its own, is at the root of one of Germany's biggest ever corporate failures. KirchMedia, the core media rights and free-to-air television unit, filed for insolvency on Monday.