XM Radio Back Online After Two Days of Outages

NEW YORK – XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XMSR) said Tuesday afternoon its nationwide system has returned to normal strength, after a software glitch diminished or knocked out service for some customers for about one day.

XM, the bigger of the two rival pay radio services, said the problem started during the loading of software to the satellite broadcast system, which resulted in a temporary loss of signal from one of the company's satellites.

In early afternoon on Tuesday, the company in a statement said that "normal levels of service have resumed."

The company, which has agreed to be acquired by rival Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), has more than 8 million subscribers who pay about $13 a month for dozens of sports, news, music and talk channels, may of them commercial-free.

Shares of XM were slightly lower in early afternoon Tuesday, slipping 3 cents to $11.11 on Nasdaq.