Many area satellite television customers are switching from DISH Network to DirecTV after learning that DISH customers will lose ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Network signals on Friday.

“Right now there’s a backlog of people who want to move to DirecTV because Direct is not losing their networks,� said Tom Schaad, vice president of Shadix TV Sales and Service in Marietta.

Shadix is a local dealer for both satellite television systems, and serves about 3,000 customers in Washington and surrounding counties.

“Some people are taking a wait and see attitude, hoping for an eleventh-hour reprieve,� Schaad said. “But I think a lot of people are not aware of the problem. About 4 percent of DISH subscribers across the country will be affected.�

Around 34,000 West Virginians will also lose touch with their favorite network TV programs on Friday.

After that date, DISH Network must stop providing subscribers in the rural areas around Beckley, Bluefield, Clarksburg, Parkersburg and Wheeling with distant feeds of several networks.

All of those DISH Network customers, except Clarksburg, will lose their ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox signals. Clarksburg customers will lose their ABC signal.

The problem will not affect cable customers.

“We want our Suddenlink customers to know that this does not have any effect on them,� said Michael Kelemen, director of government relations for Suddenlink Communications in Charleston.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge William Dimitrouleas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., rejected an attempt by Colorado-based EchoStar, the parent company of DISH, to delay the cutoff date.

In a previous ruling, the judge had determined that EchoStar violated federal copyright law by sending so-called “distant signals� from out-of-area stations to subscribers and ordered the company to stop. Nationwide, roughly 850,000 customers will lose their network service.

In West Virginia, the ruling will affect primarily customers in rural areas where television doesn’t transmit West Virginia stations or in mountainous regions where customers can’t get the signals.

“For consumers, it’s basically a lose-lose situation,� said Jeannine Kenney, a senior policy analyst with the Consumers Union in Washington, D.C. “Through no fault of their own, hundreds of thousands of people will basically be left without important programming.�

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller has introduced legislation in Congress that would allow EchoStar to send distant signals to customers if it compensates the broadcast station in question. In areas where no local affiliates broadcast, EchoStar could transmit the channels without paying a fee. The bill would also require EchoStar to deposit $20 million to cover any future violations of federal communications law.

But with Congress out of session until Dec. 5, the Democratic senator said some disruption of network service for DISH Network customers is inevitable.

“We may not be able to get this resolved before Dec. 1, but we must make sure that as soon as possible consumers can access the stations they have come to depend on,� he said in a statement.

Kathie Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for EchoStar, referred a call seeking comment to a company statement supporting the legislation, but expressing regret that it will likely come too late to prevent disruptions in service.

While Sen. Robert C. Byrd supports the proposal, another member of Congress who helped draft the law that EchoStar violated, is warning against any emergency legislation.

Utah Republican Rep. Chris Canon, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said he doesn’t want the company to get a “special interest exemption� from the law. He noted that the court ruling affects relatively few DISH Network customers and they have the option of switching to DirecTV or cable.

“EchoStar violated the law and should not be allowed to use its consumers as human shields in the debate on the legality of its operations,� Canon wrote in a letter to fellow members of Congress.

Kenney said no one wants to sanction EchoStar’s actions, but cable is limited in many rural areas that don’t have nearby providers. And DirecTV has higher costs than the DISH Network service, she said.

EchoStar, which has about 12.5 million customers nationwide, is still hoping to delay Friday’s deadline through an appeal filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.