Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may monitor a unicast channel for a first downlink transmission from a base station using a first semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration. The UE may receive downlink control information (DCI) from the base station indicating a second SPS configuration associated with a different coverage level than the first SPS configuration. In some cases, the DCI may be DCI that is common to a set of UEs. Here, the DCI may indicate the second SPS configuration and the UE may identify a set of parameters associated with the second SPS configuration based on a radio resource control (RRC) message received prior to the DCI. Based on receiving the indication of the second SPS configuration, the UE may monitor the unicast channel for a second downlink transmission from the base station using the second SPS configuration.