Someone on Derpibooru asked if this was a thing. My instinctive answer is "no, not in the show era". However, besides a Discord example (which is easily ignored), they did point out the appearance of big screens in Manehattan at one point.

So it's possible that even if they don't have broadcasting (we don't see radio either, really) they have the basic display tech figured out.

(TV does also appear in an early comic, but that was probably just a mistake.)

Personally, I think that the technology is not present in the "show era", but has been developed by the future scenes in The Last Problem. (Whether it's been implemented in a widespread fashion by then depends on if Equestria's magic-saturated atmosphere allows for EM broadcasts or if they'll have to take an all-cable approach.)

But what do you guys think?

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They had movie theaters in "One Bad Apple" as well.

I recall in the comics seeing those old phones from like the 70s and I think a radio makes sense because that was old. At this time the ponies had magic, so they didn't need these techs at all tills after losing the magic in G5.

One of the big mistakes of G4 was the abundance of inconsistencies. They had to deal with management and freelancer writers. I like pre-industrial Equestria personally.

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They also have arcade cabinets, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were TVs.

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It is more than likely that Equestria does not have TVs, mostly because we've never seen them, as you've mentioned. We have, however, seen things like telephones, albeit only in highly urban settlements like Manehattan. Clearly, Equestria has the technology needed to construct these telecommunications systems, and yet has not implemented them nationwide, since we don't see phones in Ponyville.

If we assume this is the case, then the question becomes one of why they have not set up nationwide telecommunication systems, a much more interesting question. The first explanations that come to my mind are that there are cultural reasons opposing its adoption (i.e. ponies just don't want/need it), or that there is some more economical alternative.

Given that Equestria is a world of magic, and that we have outright seen magic being used to facilitate information transfer (Spike's fire breath, Sunset's journal), I would imagine that there exists some sort of magical communications system in place, at least on a small scale. This system could probably fill the niche of inter-city, near-instantaneous communication, operating similarly to a real-life telegram service for those willing to pay for it. More mundane systems, like the aforementioned phones, would be found in more industrialized cities that can support the necessary infrastructure.

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Depends of the writer/episode due to show being very inconsistent since it was primarily written to be episodic, comedic and relatable to kids. So one moment ponies are exploring spooky castles filled with magic and mysteries and the other moment they are in a super market buying stuff for their trip to Las Vegas.

But that's not fun or a true fan™ answer. So I'll say that personally think that it's just Manehatten that's advanced and that Equestria is very slow to adopt inventions in all corners due to ponies not traveling as often or being very traditional. Technology is certainly not developed in non pony lands, I am actually unsure if dragons for example have left stone age.

They have the technology, they just don't utilize it. They can make a TV, but broadcasting just never occurred to them– or there are issues that would prevent broadcasting. Perhaps magic messes with the the be scary waves for radio and television broadcasts. That means they can utilize recordings on individual speakers or film, but can't transmit images or sounds.

For some reason technology isn't widespread despite the usefulness of it at times and considering how many times it could have come in handy. Like triek a magic sucking centaur is on the loose in an emergency announcement on TV. They could have advised everyone not with the military to hide until further notice which might have given him less power to work with before he went after the princesses. One of the reasons he got away with even with discord help was because nobody knew of any danger. They would have run as fast as they could away from him had they known what was going on. But nobody outside the royals knew that discord had betrayed everyone so nobody suspected anything until it was too late.

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We haven't really seen any such system, though - even after Sunset showed the book-enchanting spell, which should seem to allow it. And they do seem to have the telegraph (Family Appreciation Day), which argues against both such an alternative and hesitancy to adopt technological solutions.

It could be that the necessary tech is still in early stages and not ready for widespread rollout - America wasn't telephonised in a day either.

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So one moment ponies are exploring spooky castles filled with magic and mysteries and the other moment they are in a super market buying stuff for their trip to Las Vegas.

I kind of like this style, as long as it can be made plausible.

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Yeah - if they did develop mass communication techs later, no doubt that would be one justification given to those who might be hesitant to adopt them.

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You do mostly have to headcanon it because the show was inconsistent. But I'd say that the level of tech varies wildly depending on where you are in Equestria, and occasionally individual ponies will have brought higher tech from other areas in.

Manehattan is a big city, and obviously does have a fair degree of tech. They have phones, for example.

Ponyville, now... well, it's a small rural farming town that was founded by early ponies that did things the traditional ways, and wasn't an especially important place. Phones require a bunch of infrastructure that hasn't been built there. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if a fair number of homes don't have electricity yet, even (such as Fluttershy's cottage). Sure, the Summer Sun Celebration was there, but I imagine they rotate that to all sorts of places, and Celestia had some ulterior motives for holding it there that year anyways (It's right by the Castle of the Two Princesses, where Luna was likely to go, and a number of potential element bearers were there.).

Ponyville does get more important when Twilight moves there, more so when Twilight becomes a princess, and when they have a big crystal castle/school there, and I have to imagine more ponies moving there and bringing higher tech with them.

As far as tv itself goes in Ponyville, I think it's mostly going to be movie theatres and primitive arcade games in one or two places. I was going to say you might see it in Manehattan and Las Pegasus, but then l looked back on some image galleries. A lot of the places I thought might've been big displays were still images, so posters and billboards and such.

In fact, in this screenshot of the same place 3 seasons earlier, those displays look like just posters with no lighting around them and are still. Feels more like a show inconsistency to me than anything, or just Pinkie Pie warping posters into tv displays.

If there are tv's in Equestria, I think it's just going to be big displays and not individual home units receiving any kind of broadcast, though, and any displays are going to have been recently installed...

--Sweetie Belle

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Just a further note. In season 9, here's the same location, back to not having the lights and the same still billboards that used to be there.

Must've been pretty flaky displays. They only lasted for one episode!

--Sweetie Belle

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...dang, never even realized that. The Pinkie jumbotron gag is the first thing that pops into my head when I think of that area of Manehattan that I just thought they were always screens.

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I personally usually think of that area from "Rarity Takes Manehattan", since that was a rather main location in that episode, and Rarity does go by it in the song "Generosity", which I've played quite a number of times...

--Sweetie Belle

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In my headcanon main reason why technology isn't really widespread is traditionalism. Ponies (mainly earth ponies) just don't want advanced technology nowhere near them, Celestia being benevolent ruler refrains from insisting and so some regions of Equestria are still struck in dark ages while others march ever closer to modern standard of living.

Not quite what was asked, but I do believe it is relevant to the conversation about technology in Equestria. Vinyl Scratch's entire character is one giant anachronism! Cordless headphones, techno music, that whole-ass entire DJ rig of hers... I guess since music is so important to ponies, technology in that area would advance fast?

It's not quite what you asked and it's a personal preference more than anything, but I always feel TV feels a bit out of place in a ponyfic, unless it's Sci-Fi or a clearly more technologically advanced AU. Even in Manehattan, yes. Even with the cinemas and film projectors, yes. Even with Twilight's magic projections (eg "Bats!") yes. Radio is an interesting one. It doesn't bother me as much, maybe because it feels more from the same tech era as cinemas, but I still prefer a more olde-worlde feel. Mind you, I have mushroompone's Radiowaves on my Read it Later list and I'll see whether that can convince me.

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It's also possible that TV technology was only just developed at the time the show takes place - they may have had the means to use it for low-volume products such as arcade cabinets or the giant display in Manehattan, but not yet have sorted out how to mass-produce them for the average household.

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I also see it as just a bit too advanced - likely not far round the corner, though, especially with Twilight knowing about it from the EQG world. I can see it as being in play by Luster Dawn's era.

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Also possible.

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Of course they have TV.
How would ponies watch the show?

Jokes aside, I think that certain tech would be used in the main cities, and would eventually move out to the outer areas.
Since ponies are people, they would be interested in all sorts of entertainment.
Radio would be possible then later on TV, and other types of entertainment later.

To support radio based tech, you'll need some sort of industrial base.
Equestria seems to have it with trains and skyscrapers and hydroelectric dams.

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Of course they have TV.
How would ponies watch the show?

Well... once you get to G5, they do.

--Sweetie Belle