Various methods, systems, and apparatuses can be used to perform burst efficient fast program acquisition. In some implementations, a burst efficient fast program acquisition system can operate to remove unused B-frame thereby reducing the bandwidth required for a fast burst. In other implementations, the burst efficient fast program acquisition system can decode the fast burst, identify the video frames needed for reassembly, and encode a truncated group of frames for fast burst transmission. A burst efficient fast program acquisition system can also use pre-calculated streamlined burst fast burst in conjunction with program prediction methods such as adjacent program and frequently viewed program thereby further reducing the latency associated with IPTV program acquisitions.