A system and method is described for providing communication services, including voice communications, data communications, audio/video-on-demand, and broadcast audio/video, over twisted-pair telephone lines. The system and method are based on broadband transmission techniques, such as fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN) and digital subscriber line (DSL) techniques. This approach can be applied to develop an access network comprising an array of remote terminals connected to one or more telephone central offices by fiber optic cables and connected to subscriber nodes by twisted-pair lines. Each remote terminal has the capacity to support multiple subscribers and to switch broadcast channels onto subscriber lines. Each subscriber is provided the capability to individually select via the DSL interface one or more a broadcast channels from a larger set of channels.