A technique is provided for rapid channel change (RCC) processing in a programming distribution network. The RCC process herein is configured to transmit unicast stream of packets (“RCC burst”) during a “fast-fill” interval for up to a full duration of the multicast join window, or until it is stopped by a an explicit message sent from the user terminal. The unicast stream of packets is transmitted at a full rate of an access link (i.e., the bottleneck link) on a path to the user terminal beyond an earliest time when the user terminal could join a multicast stream of packets for a new channel requested by the user terminal.