A system and method for effectuating channel changes in a multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) streaming network using a dedicated bandwidth pipe for burst transmitting a requested channel's data. A video management agent is configured to stitch burst-transmitted data with the regular channel stream during the channel change to generate a hybrid stream, which is multicast streamed toward the requesting device. Once the data from the regular channel stream is properly joined, burst transmission ceases and the bandwidth consumed for sending burst-transmitted data is released.