XM Nominates Eddy Hartenstein and John Mendel to Board of Directors

XM Nominates Eddy Hartenstein and John Mendel to Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR), the nation's leading satellite radio provider with 3.77 million subscribers, today announced that Eddy W. Hartenstein and John W. Mendel have been nominated for election to its Board of Directors. Elections will be held at the upcoming annual shareholders' meeting.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000724/XMSATLOGO )

Eddy W. Hartenstein served as the vice chairman and member of the board of directors of The DIRECTV Group Inc. (formerly Hughes Electronics Corporation) from December 23, 2003 until his retirement on December 31, 2004. Mr. Hartenstein served as chairman and CEO of DIRECTV, Inc. from late 2001 to 2004 and as president of DIRECTV, Inc. from its inception in 1990 until 2001. Prior to 1990, Mr. Hartenstein served in various capacities for Hughes Communications Inc., Equatorial Communications Services Company and Hughes Communications. Mr. Hartenstein also serves as a member of the board of directors of Thomson Multimedia and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

John W. Mendel is senior vice president, automobile operations of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., responsible for product planning, advertising, marketing, public relations and distribution for both Honda and Acura Automobile Divisions. Prior to joining American Honda in December 2004, Mendel served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Mazda North American Operations from January 2002 until November 2004. From 1976 to 2002, Mr. Mendel held numerous sales and marketing and management positions with Lincoln Mercury, Ford Customer Service and Ford of Britain.

About XM Satellite Radio

XM is America's number one satellite radio service with 3.77 million subscribers. Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, DC, New York City and Nashville at the Country Music Hall of Fame, XM's 2005 lineup includes more than 150 digital channels of choice from coast to coast: 67 commercial-free music channels, featuring hip hop to opera, classical to country, bluegrass to blues; 64 channels of premier sports, talk, comedy, children's and entertainment programming; and 21 channels of the most advanced traffic and weather information for major metropolitan areas nationwide. XM Satellite Radio is the satellite radio leader in sports programming, offering thousands of live sporting events every year. XM is the official satellite radio network for Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the Indy Racing League, the PGA TOUR, and the college sports conferences ACC, Pac-10, and Big Ten. XM was named Best Radio Service at the 2004 Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards.

XM, the leader in satellite-delivered entertainment and data services for the automobile market through partnerships with General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen/Audi, is available in more than 120 different vehicle models for 2005. XM also is available in Avis, National, and Alamo rental cars. XM is the exclusive in-flight entertainment service for AirTran Airways, and will soon be available on JetBlue flights. Consumers can experience XM over the Internet through XM Radio Online at http://listen.xmradio.com/. For more information about XM hardware, programming and partnerships, please visit http://www.xmradio.com/.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements in this press release include demand for XM Satellite Radio's service, the Company's dependence on technology and third party vendors, its potential need for additional financing, as well as other risks described in XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.'s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 3-4-05. Copies of the filing are available upon request from XM Radio's Investor Relations Department.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000724/XMSATLOGO AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: XM Satellite Radio

CONTACT: Chance Patterson, +1-202-380-4318, chance.patterson@xmradio.com, or Investors: Gary Tiedemann, +1-202-380-4010, gary.tiedemann@xmradio.com, both of XM Satellite Radio

Web site: http://www.xmradio.com/ http://listen.xmradio.com/

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