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The Telly Awards was founded in 1980, to showcase and give recognition to outstanding non-network and cable commercials. The competition was expanded several years ago to include film and video productions. When the concept for the Tellys was born, David E. Carter was chosen to be the show administrator. He has published over 90 books on advertising and logos. This, combined with his strong TV background, (Clio winner,7-time Emmy winner who produced many sketches for the Johnny Carson show) made him a natural choice to administer the competition. Over the past 22 years, the Telly Awards has become a well-known, highly respected national competition.

A major reason for the growth of the Telly competition is that entries do not compete against each other – but are judged against a high standard of excellence.

The Telly has become one of the most sought-after awards in the TV, commercial and video industry. The Telly statuette has even appeared on the set of many prime-time TV shows, such as thirtysomething, Murder, She Wrote, Newhart, News Radio, and most recently in the movie “What Women Want.”

In the past 22 years, winners and finalists have come from a large cross-section of agencies, production companies, television stations, and cable operations, as well as corporate video departments. All 50 states have been represented by past winners and finalists.