A method for bandwidth management in an optical broadcast network includes signaling, for a new optical broadcast service, from an originating node to all nodes in the optical broadcast network, wherein the signaling identifies a wavelength or portion of spectrum associated with the new optical broadcast service; at each of the nodes, checking for contention by the new optical broadcast service; responsive to identifying contention at one of the nodes, signaling the identified contention back to the originating node; and responsive to no contention at any of the nodes, processing the signaling, storing an update of the new optical broadcast service, and either forwarding the signaling to peer nodes or terminating the signaling.