A method and apparatus for channel estimation in a system employing differing transmission protocols as broadcast/multicast and unicast protocols. The number of pilot tones used for broadcast transmission is greater than the number of pilot tones used for a unicast transmission. The channel estimation may be significantly degraded when a symbol from a broadcast transmission slot is adjacent to a symbol from a unicast transmission slot, since the pilots of the adjacent slots are used for the channel estimate. Therefore, it is determined whether a first time slot of one transmission protocol (multicast slot) is adjacent to a second time slot of another transmission protocol (unicast slot), and if a first symbol of the unicast slot. The pilot power or/and the number of the pilot sub-carriersis/are increased for the edge symbol of the multicast slot for purposes of channel estimation using the edge symbol.