A fairly simple script in AviSynth could do this. How much do you know about AviSynth?
Firstly, you load the MPEG2 source using DGMPGDec. Then crop the black bars - this in itself removes half the counter.
To remove what's left, create a black & white BMP in MS Paint to use as a mask with the AVSInpaint plugin.
Then just add the black borders back in to make the resolution back up to 720 x 480.