The videos do not play upon page loads. The play button needs to be pressed in order for the video to run. They utilize Flash technology instead of some other streaming method so the bandwidth usage is limited and runs extremely fast.
These are the instructions Google sent me with the invite. It didn't say if they were CMP or not, just that advertisers could find site to advertise on that included their keywords..and had a description of what the site was about and where the ad would be placed..