Xbox 360 owners who’ve fired up their console since Monday were treated to a mandatory update that prevented them from getting their Halo Reach on for 5 to 15 minutes. The waiting was worthwhile to Xbox Live Gold members, though, thanks to the streamlined interface and enhanced search features to the Netflix app, as well as access to ESPN 3 programming.

Well, strike that last part if you happen to have Time Warner Cable or other ISPs who aren’t playing nice with ESPN as your provider. As reader Lon experienced, if you can’t access ESPN 3 on your browser, you can’t use it on your Xbox 360 either.

He writes:

I know it was only released today, but I’m sure this will grow over the next couple days. As I’m sure you are aware, Time Warner Cable customers with ESPN in their cable package were just given internet access to ESPN3. Today, Microsoft released their Xbox 360 dashboard update which included, amongst other things, access to ESPN3. It seems they over looked Time Warner Cable customers. When we access it through a computer we are required to log-in using our Time Warner “my services” account to verify that we subscribe to a cable package that includes ESPN3; they didn’t include this option on the xbox version. So it seems that all the hype about ESPN3 was all for not for those of us sadly stuck with Time Warner Cable.

If you’ve used the Xbox 360’s ESPN 3, what are your impressions?

Previously: ESPN3 Coming To Some Xbox Live Consoles

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.