A method for processing a channel change request in a television system operating according to the IP protocol. This method is implemented in a digital decoder of the subscriber and its purpose is to avoid overloading the access network in the case of burst zapping and avoid penalizing the reactivity time of the system in the case of simple zapping. In the case of reception of a burst of channel change requests separated by a time interval less than the duration of the predetermined timeout (Ttempo), the digital decoder transmits, to the access network of the system, two physical channel change requests, one for the first channel change request and the other for the last channel change request of the burst.