I have written about how WTHR removing its station on the AT&T U-Verse TV service is a sign that the government will need to step in and end the consumers being victimized by a game of chicken between two for-profit corporations.  Trust me, even once this is settled, it will happen again unless federal authorities put rules into place to settle these disputes.

The two parties are at odds about the amount of money AT&T is to pay WTHR for the right to re-transmit their signal on the AT&T U-verse service.

But now that this has been dragging on for weeks, I have a word of warning to WTHR – this fracas is hurting you much more that AT&T at this point…..Channel 13 needs to settle now.

Why?  Let’s use my wife Jane & I.  We always tended to watch local news on WTHR.  They have good, experienced reporters that know the local scene very well.  You generally get a little extra from their news operation.  They also have the best TV investigative team in town.

But Jane & I have now started to watch other local news stations.  Guess what?  Those other stations are doing a good job of covering local news.  We are getting used to relying on other stations to get our local news.

That’s the danger WTHR faces.  Families such as ours, that have watched WTHR for years to get our local TV news, may never return.  WTHR’s ratings lead may well start to fade for a number of the AT&T U-Verse subscribers such as ourselves.

As I have written before, neither WTHR nor AT&T will discuss the details of what is causing this dispute, they just point the finger at each other and say it’s the other party’s fault.

My message to WTHR is that you have the most to lose at this point.  I can use an antenna to watch Notre Dame football.  Now that we have lived without your local newscasts for several weeks, we could well do without if from now on.  WTHR, you had best settle now.