McALLEN, Texas www.themonitor.com- — Call it a technical foul for Time Warner Cable.

The cable television provider accidentally broadcast pornography early Saturday morning instead of a college basketball game on the ESPNU channel.

An official from the company chalked up the mistake to a technical mix-up.

Time Warner Cable was going through a procedure to isolate all of its adult channels to prevent them from ever being broadcast on non-adult channels. But in the process, a mistake occurred and pornographic programming was sent to the ESPNU channel instead said Jon Herrera, a regional spokesman for Time Warner Cable.

ESPNU – which shows college sporting events – then featured a topless blonde in heavy makeup that soon gave way to hard-core porn.

“This is an example of a well-intended action that didn’t get executed properly,” Herrera.

Nobody called to complain about the mix-up, which occurred about 3:15 a.m. Saturday, Herrera said. Only homes in the Rio Grande Valley were affected.

“We certainly do apologize to anybody who saw this,” Herrera said.

This isn’t the first time Texas television viewers have been inadvertently exposed to pornography.

Last month, viewers of a Public Broadcasting Service station in Waco who were watching “My Music: ‘50s Pop Parade” saw about five seconds of adult programming on a Sunday evening.

Comcast cable viewers in Tucson, Ariz., saw full frontal male nudity for several seconds during this year’s Super Bowl.