CBS has reached a deal for Amazon Prime to stream 2,000 episodes of 18 series from its library, including "Numb3rs," "Medium," "The Tudors," "Frasier," "Cheers," and the entire "Star Trek" franchise. Jeanine Poggi writes that the move is seen as another blow to Netflix, which has received criticism for impending rate hikes and also experienced an outage over the weekend.

Hasn't been much outdoor advertising news lately for "Around the Net," so we were happy to come upon Rick Porter's coverage of a new billboard that also gives us a hint of how CBS' revamped "Two and a Half Men" will be promoted. Or maybe "teased" would be the better word -- since Ashton Kutcher and the other one-and-a-half, OK, two, men are supposedly naked behind the sign they're holding up. "All will be revealed" on Sept. 19, the sign says.

In an agreement "born of grim economic trends in the newspaper business" -- one that "will cost about 400 workers their jobs" -- the Chicago Tribune will begin printing the Chicago Sun-Times and seven of its suburban sister newspapers, according to the Sun-Times.Sun-Times Media publications will retain editorial independence from the Tribune. The deal will allow the former to increase investment in editorial content and advertising sales, and provide "greater capacity for color printing," to help papers sell more color ads.

Trade publisher Schofield Media is shutting down its U.S. operations, which put out such titles as American Executive, Inside Healthcare, and the 100-year-old Beverage World Magazine, Folio's Matt Kinsman reports. The company reportedly lost its bank financing "unexpectedly," but its two owners are negotiating to get the titles back. Meanwhile, Schofield Publishing UK and Schofield Healthcare Media are unaffected by the move.

Time Warner Cable is beginning its local daily deals program, ClickedIn, with offerings in major Texas cities (Austin, Dallas and San Antonio) this month. It will be expanded to other locations later this year.ClickedIn provides virtual coupons for local businesses that are emailed to Time Warner subscribers.

The ongoing puzzle at the heart of the six seasons of "How I Met Your Mother" that have already aired -- just who the hell IS the mother? -- should be revealed in season eight. That will most likely be the sit-com's very last season, says creator and executive producer Craig Thomas in a TV Guide interview dissected on AOL TV. However, there's still a possibility "HIMYM" could continue past its expiration date, writes Catherine Lawson: "A lot at CBS is riding on what happens with the new Charlie Sheen-less 'Two and a Half Men.' Should the Ashton Kutcher version …

This week Time magazine will begin offering subscribers a $30 yearly subscription for access to its content on every platform, including magazine-only features previously unavailable on the Web and digital issues on major tablets (iPad, HP Touchpad and Samsung Galaxy Tab).Several other forms of subscriptions are a one-week "short-term" online pass for $4.99, and a $2.99 per month option for print and tablet issues and online access.

Apparently, Zachary Levi doesn't just play a nerdy character on NBC's "Chuck" -- he's one in real life! He's coming to Comic-Con as part of something called Nerd HQ, sponsored by Xbox 360, and John Gaudiosi reports that Levi has plans to develop a combo TV series/interactive game for Xbox Live. Each half-hour or hour episode would unveil another chapter of the game, which Levi feels would greatly improve on the current process, where fans can wait years for a complete new game to be released. "I want to start a nerd evolution," Chuck -- er, Levi -- says.

Hulu's current owners -- Disney, News Corp. and NBCUniversal -- are reportedly offering prospective buyers of the online video service five years of rights to their programming, including two years on an exclusive basis. The exclusivity would not apply to the network sites of the three present owners -- ABC, Fox and NBC.

Why wasn't "Friday Night Lights" a ratings hit? "The moment that critics from New York to L.A. loved the show, I knew we were doomed," says Brad Leland (who plays Buddy Garrity), somewhat tongue in cheek, as quoted in this oral history of the series. More likely, the show's relative failure (it survived, just barely, for two seasons on NBC, with three more seasons of a DirecTV/NBC run that will end tonight) had to do with scheduling flubs and misguided marketing that made potential viewers think it was just about football -- as others note in this post. (For …