A method for providing guaranteed channels in a switched digital video (SDV) network to a subscriber station (104-1), the method comprising: receiving a request from the subscriber station (104-1) for a guaranteed channel; determining which edge quadrature amplitude modulator (QAM) device (122-1 to 122-M) the requested guaranteed channel is assigned to; modeling a bandwidth pipe associated with the edge QAM device for allocating appropriate bandwidth to a multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) stream of the requested guaranteed channel; responsive to the bandwidth pipe modeling of the edge QAM device and determining that a particular MABR stream having an appropriate bitrate can be packed into the bandwidth pipe of the edge QAM device, joining the particular MABR stream of the requested channel to facilitate its streaming via the edge QAM device, wherein the bandwidth pipe modelling of the edge QAM further comprises: initializing a list of channels associated with the edge QAM, wherein each channel is provided with a minimum bitrate stream based on subscriber stations' codec capabilities; for each channel in the list, computing an inadequacy metric based on a policy management rule involving a weight factor associated with the channel and the channel's bitrate; and sorting the list of channels in a descending order of the inadequacy metric and, for each channel, iteratively determining whether a channel can upgrade to a next higher bitrate under an existing bandwidth allocation of the bandwidth pipe, and if the channel can upgrade to the next highest bitrate, changing the bitrate for the channel to the next highest bitrate and returning to the computing step. receiving a request from the subscriber station (104-1) for a guaranteed channel; determining which edge quadrature amplitude modulator (QAM) device (122-1 to 122-M) the requested guaranteed channel is assigned to; modeling a bandwidth pipe associated with the edge QAM device for allocating appropriate bandwidth to a multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) stream of the requested guaranteed channel; responsive to the bandwidth pipe modeling of the edge QAM device and determining that a particular MABR stream having an appropriate bitrate can be packed into the bandwidth pipe of the edge QAM device, joining the particular MABR stream of the requested channel to facilitate its streaming via the edge QAM device, wherein the bandwidth pipe modelling of the edge QAM further comprises: initializing a list of channels associated with the edge QAM, wherein each channel is provided with a minimum bitrate stream based on subscriber stations' codec capabilities; for each channel in the list, computing an inadequacy metric based on a policy management rule involving a weight factor associated with the channel and the channel's bitrate; and sorting the list of channels in a descending order of the inadequacy metric and, for each channel, iteratively determining whether a channel can upgrade to a next higher bitrate under an existing bandwidth allocation of the bandwidth pipe, and if the channel can upgrade to the next highest bitrate, changing the bitrate for the channel to the next highest bitrate and returning to the computing step. initializing a list of channels associated with the edge QAM, wherein each channel is provided with a minimum bitrate stream based on subscriber stations' codec capabilities; for each channel in the list, computing an inadequacy metric based on a policy management rule involving a weight factor associated with the channel and the channel's bitrate; and sorting the list of channels in a descending order of the inadequacy metric and, for each channel, iteratively determining whether a channel can upgrade to a next higher bitrate under an existing bandwidth allocation of the bandwidth pipe, and if the channel can upgrade to the next highest bitrate, changing the bitrate for the channel to the next highest bitrate and returning to the computing step. <EOS>