The present disclosure is directed to a system and method of communicating emergency alerts. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving a multicast emergency alert message at a set-top box device via a multicast-enabled network, where the multicast emergency alert message includes data related to a location code and data related to a set-top box action. The method also includes executing the set-top box action when the location code matches location information stored at the set-top box device.