A method and integrated hardware system for multicast transmission shaping in EPONs which employs a selective multicast algorithm that significantly reduces the complexity of traffic shaping for multicast traffic. Unlike prior art methods, my method exploits the broadcasting nature of the downstream point-to-multipoint access system including EPONs. Operationally, the method transforms a multicast traffic shaping problem into a unicast traffic shaping problem by selecting a multicast subscriber and subsequently treating packets addressed to that selected multicast subscriber as unicast. Advantageously, these packets are still available to other members of the multicast group. And since these packets are treated as unicast from the perspective of traffic shaping, my inventive method significantly reduces traffic shaping complexity in multicast environment.