There are two points to make here, one is that I am led to believe that a mini dish is marginal on the reception of Hotbird satellites(only from what people have said on this forum, I dont have any experience). I guess it depends on where you are in the country, and more importantly how well aligned the dish is.
Secondly is the poitn about receiving all encrypted channels, unfortunately at the moment only the frrnch channels are working, so what you are most likely to want to watch in english is at a minimum. Hopefully S*y Italy will be working again soon, and aparently cyfr@+ is soon to be available, only rumoured though. So at the moment limited on hotbird, but in the near future there may be more than ever available. Its always a wait and see thing.
Hope i've been more helpful with this answer than the rest, normally I am in a rush and dont have time to type a full answer out.