A method for changing channels in a multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) communications network , the method comprising: receiving a channel change (CC) request from a set-top-box (STB) 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 (FCC) 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 (CC) request from a set-top-box (STB) 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 (FCC) 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. <EOS>