Universal Music appears to be ready to introduce an online video portal similar to Hulu, an anonymous source within the company told CNET News.

The largest of the four major music labels would likely offer music videos as well as other programming related to artists in their catalog, which includes acts such as Kanye West, The Killers, Pussycat Dolls, Mariah Carey, and Amy Winehouse.

An online portal like this would not only give Universal Music a foothold in the digital video space, but would also give them a chance to eke extra advertising revenue out of things like music videos and concert videos, which the music-related cable TV channels (MTV, VH1, etc.) play very little of these days. It would also open the label to branching further out into mobile video; some simple transcoding to fit a 2-inch cell phone screen is all that would take.