
BSkyB has a put option exercisable in October on its 22% stake in Kirch's pay-TV operations. Kirch must, under the terms of the option, buy back Sky's stake.
Sky has already written off the value of the option at just under £1bn when it reported its first-half results in February.
A spokesman for Sky said: "Sky remains focused on its put option."
Debt-ridden Kirch Group's film and free-television unit KirchMedia began insolvency proceedings this morning when it filed documents with a Munich court.
The move will see creditors take control of KirchMedia once it has been put in administration. This will see assets transferred to a new administrator-controlled company.
The insolvency went ahead after shareholders rejected a £490m plan backed by Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi. The plan would have given the two media giants control of Premiere, the loss-making pay-TV network which has been a massive drain on Kirch, and ProSiebenSAT.1, Germany's biggest TV broadcaster.
Murdoch already holds 22% of Premiere through BSkyB. However, the stumbling block was thought to have been that Premiere needs around $1bn (£697.3m) in fresh capital, which News Corp does not want to provide.
Kirch has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for days. Last week, shareholders gathered for last-ditch rescue talks, which broke up without agreement on how to save the company. Kirch is struggling with €8.8bn (£5.4bn) of debt and has had advisers looking at what assets it could dispose of to survive.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .