A method for changing channels in a multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) communications network (100A, 100B), the method comprising: receiving a channel change request from a set-top-box device disposed in a subscriber premises including a plurality of client devices (104-1 to 104-N, 106) to change to a target service channel provided as a plurality of MABR streams wherein each MABR stream corresponds to a particular bitrate representation of the target service channel having a different bitrate than each other MABR stream; determining a select bitrate representation of the target service channel to which the requesting STB device is to be switched, where the select bitrate representation is a bitrate representation of the target service channel selected such that its corresponding recovery segment allows switching to the target service channel at a highest possible bitrate quality while satisfying a channel change render time threshold within a dedicated FCC pipe portion's bandwidth constraints; generating a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to obtain the recovery segment from a cached storage, the recovery segment having a matching bitrate corresponding to the select bitrate representation of the target service channel; joining the requesting STB device to a multicast ABR stream having the select bitrate representation of the target service channel using the recovery segment downloaded from the cached storage, wherein the recovery segment is transmitted in the dedicated fast channel change pipe portion of a subscriber premises bandwidth pipe allocated to the subscriber premises; and if the select bitrate representation of the target service channel is not at a correct bitrate quality provisioned for the requesting STB device, allocating or reallocating at least a portion of the bandwidth of the subscriber premises bandwidth pipe to ensure that the correct bitrate quality for the target service channel is reached. receiving a channel change request from a set-top-box device disposed in a subscriber premises including a plurality of client devices (104-1 to 104-N, 106) to change to a target service channel provided as a plurality of MABR streams wherein each MABR stream corresponds to a particular bitrate representation of the target service channel having a different bitrate than each other MABR stream; determining a select bitrate representation of the target service channel to which the requesting STB device is to be switched, where the select bitrate representation is a bitrate representation of the target service channel selected such that its corresponding recovery segment allows switching to the target service channel at a highest possible bitrate quality while satisfying a channel change render time threshold within a dedicated FCC pipe portion's bandwidth constraints; generating a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request to obtain the recovery segment from a cached storage, the recovery segment having a matching bitrate corresponding to the select bitrate representation of the target service channel; joining the requesting STB device to a multicast ABR stream having the select bitrate representation of the target service channel using the recovery segment downloaded from the cached storage, wherein the recovery segment is transmitted in the dedicated fast channel change pipe portion of a subscriber premises bandwidth pipe allocated to the subscriber premises; and if the select bitrate representation of the target service channel is not at a correct bitrate quality provisioned for the requesting STB device, allocating or reallocating at least a portion of the bandwidth of the subscriber premises bandwidth pipe to ensure that the correct bitrate quality for the target service channel is reached.