Updated: The serious talks between The Walt Disney Company and Hulu we first reported a month ago finally have resulted in a deal making the company a partner with News Corp., NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and Providence Equity Partners in the video portal and distributor. The deal, which has yet to close, adds ABC’s prime time shows to Hulu as well as its daytime soaps and programming from ABC Family, Disney Channel and SOAPnet.

For Hulu, this is about more than getting ABC and Disney cable programming. To get ABC Disney on board, paidContent was told News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and NBCU—whose exclusive deals with the JV were set to expire late this year—agreed to a two-year extension that matches Disney’s term and gives Hulu some breathing space as it continues to build out.

The dissension over the move at Disney, which until now has insisted ABC’s long-form programming be streamed through its own player, was tamped down a bit by the emphasis on the low amount of current crossover viewing between ABC.com and Hulu, and the company’s desire to attract more casual viewers. The idea, emphasized by Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney/ABC Television Group, in an interview, is to aim for the casual fan who wants a browser-based experience through Hulu, possibly converting some along the way, and serve the more dedicated fans through the ABC.com player.

The desire to expand Disney’s reach, audience and potential ad revenue also played a role in the short-form deal with YouTube announced earlier this month; that deal includes ESPN (NYSE: DIS). Why didn’t Disney go with Google’s long-form offer? One source attributed it, in part, to timing and to terms that weren’t seen to outweigh the Hulu potential—in other words, Disney has equity in Hulu and wasn’t going to get anything like that at YouTube. 

Disney gets three seats on the Hulu board that will be filled by CEO Bob Iger; Sweeney; and Kevin Mayer, executive vice president, Corporate Strategy, Business Development & Technology. Iger wanted the deal but I’m told Mayer was a big reason why it got done. The release is here but read on for details you won’t get from that.

—Equity: One source familiar with the deal told me the split comes down to 27 percent for each of the three for a total of 81 percent, . The remaining 13 19 percent goes to investor Providence Equity Partners and Hulu employees. (I failed to include the employee share last time I wrote about this.) Another source urged me after my first report appeared not to get too hung up on the numbers but to focus on the equal governance rights and equal responsibilities. The New York Times has one explanation: Disney’s stake is 28 percent, slightly less than cofounders NBCU and News Corp.

—Exclusivity: NBC and Fox exclusivity was in the sunset phase; matching ABC’s two-year agreement means Hulu will be the exclusive off-network distributor for all three through the next two years.

—Windowing:  Tricky, tricky, tricky. One person familiar with the situation told me that the networks will not have to make all the episodes they put on their own sites available to Hulu. For instance, ABC might put the trailing five episodes of Grey’s and scattered back episodes on Hulu but could continue to make the whole library available on ABC.com through the ABC player. Update: Another source close to the negotiations said this is wrong and that the level playing field remains: if the network site has it, Hulu has it.

Click through: Currently, Hulu.com doesn’t systematically push traffic to the network sites. My understanding is that would change and viewers would be offered the opportunity to click through for more in-depth content at ABC.com or the others.

—Distribution: The deal should keep in place the rights of each content partner to continue to work with current partners. Fancast, for instance, has deals with ABC and Hulu; my understanding is ABC could continue to work directly with Fancast even if the Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) portal fails to renew its agreement with Hulu.

—Promotion: NYT puts the amount ABC promised to provide in promotional value for Hulu at $25 million. That should be in line with what the others promise going forward.

• Could Disney Join Hulu? Sources Say Talks Are Serious