Methods and systems to manage narrowcast bandwidth are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a channel tune request from a set top box associated with a service group, and determining whether current total bandwidth use by the service group is at or above a first predetermined threshold. The method additionally includes multicasting a high bitrate version of a requested channel to the set top boxes of the service group when the current total bandwidth use by the service group is below the first predetermined threshold. The requested channel corresponds to the received channel tune request. The method further includes multicasting a low bitrate version of the requested channel to the set top boxes of the service group when the current total bandwidth use by the service group is at or above the first predetermined threshold.