Gearing up to head to your favorite sports bar this Sunday for the Colts game? You might want to call ahead first.

An unresolved dispute over carrier fees between WTHR and DirecTV ended with the Indianapolis-area NBC affiliate no longer being carried by the national satellite provider.

That means Colts games on NBC, including this Sunday night’s season opener against the Denver Broncos, won’t be available to local DirecTV customers.

The blackout is affecting area sports bars and restaurants.

“This impasse is going to affect us dramatically starting today and through this weekend … due to the fact that we have contracted services with DirecTV for all our restaurants. We will be unable to show the game,” said Scott Wise, president and CEO of Scotty’s Brewhouse. “Without a deal in place between WTHR and DirecTV by this weekend, potentially this includes the Michigan versus Notre Dame game on Saturday and the opening game for Colts versus Denver prime time Sunday night game.”

Wise said each of Scotty’s 10 restaurants has between 30 and 60 TVs and getting all of them game ready is time consuming and costly.

“We have looked into moving our services to another provider all week due to the impasse, but no one would be able to get all our restaurants up and running in time,” he said. “Speaking of costly, for us to carry the NFL Sunday Ticket package through DirecTV, we pay around $50,000 annually.”

Along with Scotty’s, local Buffalo Wild Wings locations will feel the effect of the standoff between WTHR and DirecTV. Employees at the Downtown restaurant said Thursday that they will not be able to show the Colts game this weekend.

In the spring, Buffalo Wild Wings announced an expanded partnership with DirecTV, making it the first chain to offer DirecTV’s complete sports programming lineup at all locations.

Wise said while he understands that both DirecTV and WTHR must negotiate with their best interests in mind, they should also do so without harming their customers.

“I’m not one to get in the middle of contract negotiations between two businesses I know very little about. I’m sure each party has their reasons, and I’m sure the main reason revolves around profitability for one or both parties,” he said. “Where I do think both parties are missing the boat here is that this is affecting their brands, their parent brands by association and the future loyalty of their consumers.

“I am hopefully optimistic that they will figure this out today or hopefully tomorrow at the latest. If they don’t, we will show all the other college and NFL games on Saturday and Sunday, just not the ones on NBC at all our restaurants in Indianapolis.”

WTHR is still available free over the airwaves. AT&T U-verse, Dish Network, Bright House and Comcast customers are unaffected by the blackout.

Call Star reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.