There's lots of excellent free German tv on Astra1, and it's the easiest satellite to get in England (I use a 40cm dish, the smallest size!). However, going into northern Scotland, the signal power hugely decreases, and you rapidly start needing a much larger dish. For more info, Google "astra 1 footprint" (search for images).
Almost any free-to-air type digital sat receiver will get these channels (even a Sky digibox will, using "other channels", worth doing if you can find one very cheap). A "blind scan" receiver is useful, this will automatically find new channels, which saves constantly checking on Internet. However, most receivers have a built-in channels database, which should be fairly accurate.
To find transponder and channel details, look at
www.satcodx.com, for 19E.
A CAM (conditional access) receiver will additionally get subscription channels, but it's unlikely you'll want to pay for these, as there's loads of free ones.
(added) there's also some free RAI channels on Hotbird, for getting both Astra1 and Hotbird together you can buy a special "monobloc" single lnb, but the receiver must then have diseqc, note that Sky digiboxes don't.
added - for just the free German/Italian channels on Astra1/ Hotbird, see:
www.lyngsat.com/freetv/Germany.html .
www.lyngsat.com/freetv/Italy.html .
